


Burr Worked Next Door

by moonjockey



Series: Burr Worked Next Door [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Teachers, M/M, Sexual Frustration, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-05-30 05:07:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6410050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonjockey/pseuds/moonjockey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So it seems that both of you would like to be in charge of speech team. But I think it would serve our students best if you both worked together.”</p><p>Aaron, who had been raised in a very religious household, never swore. Well, rarely. He only seemed to whenever Hamilton was involved.</p><p>Aaron Burr has been working with Alexander Hamilton for three years, and he's avoided him for that long. Until now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Can we confer, sir?

Aaron looked down the hallway towards Hamilton’s room. That jackass was laughing with the kids _again_. He was acting like such a child with them. He glared towards them, barely noticing as his next group of 6th graders entered his room. Aaron stared at them a few more moments before shaking his head. He walked back into his room as his students were sitting down at their desks. “Boys and girls make sure you take your homework out, I will be collecting it today.” 

Aaron heard annoyed groans as he moved towards his desk. “No complaining, you knew this was coming.” 

He continued to hear whispers as he started to take attendance. “I don’t know why we’re talking, all you need to do is take your homework out. This is not something we need to discuss.” 

The room quickly fell silent as Aaron looked around, noticing one desk empty and checking his seating chart. “Is Sam not here today?’ 

“No, he went home sick.” 

Aaron marked him absent on his computer before standing up. “I’m coming around to check your homework, it should be out by now.” He walked around with his gradebook, quickly checking his students’ work. 

“Ugh, this is so stupid. Why do we even have to learn this? I heard Mr. Hamilton is much more fun. Why are we stuck with Burr?” One student whispered loudly. 

Aaron hated how the kids acted like he couldn’t hear them. He was standing right behind them. He rolled his eyes and continued to check the students’ homework. They had to write an essay supporting one side of the Civil War, which they had learned about the previous day. 

At the end of class, which was his last of the day, Aaron tidied up his desk and grabbed a notebook. He had to head to the all staff meeting after school. Their principal, Washington, liked to start their meetings right on time. 

Aaron locked his door and turned to walk down the hallway when he saw Hamilton was also about to leave his classroom. Aaron did not want to get stuck having awkward small talk with the guy. Well, really with Hamilton it would turn into him just talking at Aaron. He didn’t need to be in that situation _again_. Aaron hovered by his door pretending to look through his notebook until he thought it would be safe. 

He looked up after a few moments to see Hamilton standing right in front of him, his arms crossed, a knowing smile on his face. 

“Hey, Burr, you looked pretty into that notebook of yours.”

Aaron rolled his eyes. Of course Hamilton would wait for him. _Of course_. 

Aaron closed his notebook and started walking quickly down the hallway, Hamilton falling into step next to him. 

“So, Burr we need to talk about planning next month’s lessons to make sure we’re on the same page. When can we meet?” 

“Next month already? Hamilton, school just started. I’m just thinking about next week!” 

“I just like to be prepared, Burr. You know that.” 

Aaron shook his head. It was like this the last 3 years they worked together. Hamilton always working non-stop, and always planning weeks and weeks in advance. When Burr first started he felt like he had to keep up with the man, but he knew it was impossible. He now begrudgingly worked with him when he had to, usually once a month to make sure they were going to cover the same material. But other than that Burr tried to keep his distance. Hamilton was very persistent though. 

“Send me an email, I’ll let you know when I’m free.” Aaron held the door open for Hamilton as they stepped into the classroom used for meetings. 

“Can’t we just meet after this?” 

Aaron took his normal seat in the back. “Hamilton. Some of us have lives outside of work you know.” 

He didn’t really, but he didn’t need Hamilton to know that. 

Hamilton just laughed and sat down. Right next to Aaron. 

He groaned internally. Hamilton usually sat right up in front. 

Aaron opened up his notebook and turned himself away from Hamilton, hoping that would end their conversation. 

To no avail. Hamilton continued to talk at him. 

Aaron had learned to tune him out years ago, and just looked towards the front of the room, hoping desperately Washington would be starting soon. 

After a few minutes, Washington stepped up to the front of the room. He talked through a few orders of business, none of which pertained to Aaron. He tried to pay attention because he didn’t want Washington to see if he zoned out. Washington had taken over as the principal last year, and had never really seemed to like Aaron. He was still desperate to get on his good side.

Aaron started to pay more attention when Washington started talking about open positions for extracurriculars. Aaron still didn’t do anything extra and knew it would look good with Washington if he did. 

“As you all know, last year after his tenure here for many years, Mr. Adams retired, leaving his position as speech team leader open.” 

Aaron looked around to gauge other people’s reactions to this news. No one seemed interested. Well, Hamilton did. But Hamilton had just sort of been bouncing in his chair since the meeting started anyways so it was hard to tell. 

Washington mentioned a few other clubs that needed teachers, but speech team was the only thing that Aaron cared about. He had been on speech team when he was in high school, so he knew a little bit about it. 

Once the meeting was over Aaron walked straight up to Washington.

“Hey George, quick question?” 

Washington looked like he was on his way out the door, but paused and crossed his arms. 

“Can I be in charge of speech team? I have experience already.” 

“Not now, Burr. Come and talk to me tomorrow.” Washington quickly dismissed him and walked away. 

Aaron sighed. He hoped no one else would get to him first. He needed this position. 

\-----

The next day, Aaron went to Washington’s office immediately when he got to work. 

He lightly knocked on Washington’s doorframe. “Sir, can we talk now?” He poked his head into the office. 

Washington laughed. “No need to be so formal, Aaron. Sure, come on in and take a seat.” 

Aaron laughed nervously and sat down in one of the chairs in front of Washington’s desk. 

“So, you’re interested in the speech team position?” 

“Yes, I do have some experience. I was on the team when i was in high school, so I at least know a little bit about it.” 

Washington sighed and folded his hands on top of his desk. “Hmm, well, we have sort of a problem.” 

“What is it?” 

“We have another teacher interested as well.” 

He should have known someone would get it before him. 

“Oh, well…” Aaron could hear the disappointment in his voice sneaking through. 

Washington interrupted him, holding up his hand. “Let me think though. I think this may work out.” 

Washington sat quietly for a few moments before turning to his phone and dialing. “Can you come to my office?....Yes, right now.” 

He turned back towards Aaron with a smile. “I think we will have enough students on the team that it should actually require two teachers. And you already work together so it shouldn’t be a problem.” 

Aaron heard a voice at the door. “You wanted to see me?” 

_NO. NO_. 

“Yes Hamilton, come in.” Burr couldn’t even turn to look at him. He sat frozen in his chair gripping the arms. 

_FUCKKKKKKKKK_. 

Aaron, who had been raised in a very religious household, never swore. 

Well, rarely. He only seemed to whenever Hamilton was involved. 

Hamilton sat down next to him. Aaron still could not bear to look at him. 

“So it seems that both of you would like to be in charge of speech team. But I think it would serve our students best if you both worked together.” 

Aaron finally looked over to Hamilton to see how he felt. He looked positively ecstatic. And he was fucking bouncing again. 

Aaron tried to smile. “Sure, uh, that works for me.” His voice was betraying him. 

Hamilton threw his arm around Aaron’s shoulder. “Oh yeah, Burr and I will be a great team.” 

Aaron wanted to die. 

\-----

It was worse than he thought. Instead of the once a month meetings he was used to with Hamilton, it was now multiple times. In a day. 

He would just walk into Aaron’s room unannounced at random times throughout the day. Sometimes even when he had a class. 

“Mr. Burr, sorry to interrupt.”

Aaron tried not to look as annoyed as he felt. His eye was twitching. He attempted to put a smile on his face in front of the children. “Mr. Hamilton. We’re in the middle of class. It will have to wait.” 

“Did you tell your class about our first speech team meeting after school today?” 

_How could I forget?_ Aaron had been dreading this day for the last few weeks. 

Aaron smiled tightly. “Of course. Now if you’ll excuse me, these kids need to learn about more about Reconstruction before our test.” 

Aaron lightly pushed Hamilton out the door, but not before Hamilton could get out, “Join us at the speech team meeting after school today, kids!” 

Aaron gave a fake laugh and closed the door. He turned back to the kids and continued with his lesson, but his mind was still on Hamilton. His eye twitched again. 

Aaron was not pleased to find that the day went by very quickly. Before he knew it, it was the end of the day and he was slowly making his way towards Hamilton’s classroom where they were holding the first meeting. 

Hamilton looked up at him when he entered and gave him a huge smile. 

“Mr. Burr, sir! Welcome, welcome!” 

Aaron tried to give a smile back. There were a few students already in the room, or else he wouldn’t bother. 

He walked towards the front and stood next to Hamilton. Hamilton was talking with some of the students, Aaron just stood stiffly at the front, his arms crossed. 

More students filed into the room, Hamilton elbowed Aaron. 

“Burr, lighten up dude. We’re trying to make students excited about speech team, not tell them that their dog died.” 

Aaron shook his arms out and tried to relax his face into a more pleasant look. He didn’t want to admit that Hamilton was right so he said nothing. 

They started the meeting a few minutes later. 

Aaron was about to start speaking when Hamilton spoke over him. 

“Okay, boys and girls, welcome to speech team. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Mr. Hamilton and I teach 6th grade social studies. This year I’m going to be leading speech team.” 

“Um, Mr. Hamilton, we’re actually co-leaders.” He couldn’t believe Hamilton would say that. He should have known he would try to just take over. Aaron stood up straighter and stood next to Hamilton. 

“Yes, boys and girls, we will actually both be in charge of speech team this year.” Aaron tried once again to speak while not letting his true emotions show on his face. His eye would not stop twitching.

Hamilton chuckled. “Ah, yes you’re right Mr. Burr.” 

Hamilton continued to lead the rest of the meeting, bouncing and walking around the room. Aaron was able to get a few words in, but Hamilton would always speak over him and interrupt. 

By the time the meeting was over, the kids were all chatting excitedly and they had a lot of students sign up. But Aaron was positively fuming. He couldn’t even pretend any more. 

He did not want to talk to Hamilton about it and tried to leave the room as soon as the last student left. 

Hamilton was too quick and grabbed his arm. “Burr, man you really need to smile more.” 

Aaron pulled his arm from Hamilton’s grasp. “I usually do, but it’s really hard when I’m around you.” 

Hamilton’s smile dropped quickly. “What the hell man? What’s wrong with me?” 

Aaron took a deep breath and counted to ten. He didn’t need to get into an argument. Students were still nearby. 

“I’m not going to get into this right now, Hamilton. We’ll talk later.” 

“Come on, Burr, we need to figure this out. If we’re gonna work together…” Hamilton continued to talk. Aaron took a deep breath again; it didn’t help. 

“DROP IT, OKAY?” Aaron couldn’t help but yell. He rarely raised his voice, even to the students. 

Hamilton stared at him, his eyebrows raised. 

“Okay, okay. I got it.” 

Aaron whipped open the door and stormed out.


	2. Can I buy you a drink?

Aaron had a hard time focusing on doing his grading that night. He usually would drink wine to relax, but not after his long day of dealing with Hamilton. He needed something stronger. He opened the bottle of whiskey that he had gotten as a Christmas gift a couple years ago. He couldn’t even remember who had given it to him. He poured himself a drink, pouring a little more than usual. 

He took a bigger sip than he anticipated and coughed, the liquid burning his throat. 

He put the glass aside and picked up his grading, trying to focus. He picked up his pen and started reading through essays. 

He’d barely made it through the first paragraph when his mind was once again on Hamilton. He had been so frustrated with the man all day that Aaron kept remembering every little thing Hamilton had ever done to annoy him. Well, he figured he didn’t exactly do it to annoy him; it was just Hamilton being Hamilton. 

He leaned back on his couch and sighed, his grading lying forgotten on his lap. 

Today’s disaster of a meeting where he took over and walked around like a little kid who couldn’t keep still kept playing on an endless loop. But that was far from the only time Aaron had been annoyed with him. Aaron furiously rubbed his hands over his face desperately trying to erase the images of Hamilton. It didn’t work. 

His mind jumped to the time Hamilton’s loud music had been blaring through the thin walls. The books on the wall had even started shaking. Why he was playing music in his class, Aaron would never know. He didn’t want to ask Hamilton about it. 

He even thought about the time when Hamilton had stood up in the middle of a meeting to yell at their assistant principal, Jefferson. Aaron had felt the same way as Hamilton, but would never risk his job to stand up in a meeting to yell at an administrator. He had even approached Hamilton after the meeting to talk to him about it. 

_“You need to talk less, Hamilton. It’s going to get you fired_ ,” Aaron had said. He didn’t know why he decided to help him that day. He supposed he was too good of a person. He didn’t get along with Hamilton but that didn’t mean he deserved to be fired. 

He envied Hamilton, in a way. The man had courage and stood up for what he believed in no matter the consequences. The kids seemed to like him more, even though Aaron knew he was the better teacher from their once monthly meetings. There had even been one time Hamilton had asked Aaron for help with a lesson, when Aaron had first started working there. Though Aaron had been new to the school, he had more experience than Hamilton. It had never happened again. Aaron figured he had too much pride to ask now. 

Aaron sighed again and finally put his grading down admitting defeat. He took another long draw from his glass, this time warming him up properly. He sat back and watched TV the rest of the night. 

\-----

The next day at school, Aaron felt a little less annoyed. The whiskey and TV had helped. But he was still not going to seek him out. He would wait for Hamilton to come to him. 

He didn’t have to wait very long. Aaron was turning the chairs over, getting ready for his first class, when he heard a knock. He looked up and saw Hamilton waiting timidly in the hallway. It was the first time Aaron had ever seen him look so shy. 

Aaron waved him in. 

“Good morning, Burr,” Hamilton said quietly. 

Aaron nodded his head. “Good morning.” 

“I don’t want to bother you, but can we quickly chat?” 

Aaron sighed. He might as well get this over with right away. 

He directed Hamilton towards one of his student’s desks. Aaron sat in the seat next to him. 

Hamilton was giving him a weird look. 

“I'm not going to yell at you again, Hamilton. I’m mostly over it.” 

Hamilton seemed to relax a little. “That’s good, Burr. You had me worried for a second there.” 

Aaron continued to stare at him. He crossed his arms. 

“You still seem a little mad though.” 

Aaron rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m mad. You tried to pretend you were in charge of the speech team and you took over the whole meeting! Washington said we’re both in charge!” 

“Okay, yeah. Fair point. I’m sorry about that. Sometimes I just get carried away when I’m teaching or talking in front of a group.” 

“You don’t say.” 

“I know. I know. You know that already, but it’s just who I am, Burr. I’m not going to apologize for that.” Hamilton sighed. “Look, Burr. I actually do need your help with this. Washington knew what he was doing when he put us together. You’re a more organized teacher than I am, and you said you had experience with speech team in high school. Can we start over and actually do this thing together?” 

Hamilton gave him a hopeful smile. Aaron finally relaxed and smiled back at him. If he wanted this year to be a good year, he was going to have to really try to get along with Hamilton. This was a start at least. 

“Okay, Hamilton that’s fine, but you have to let me do my job and maybe let me talk every once in awhile.” 

They shook hands. “Deal.” 

\-----

Hamilton stayed true to his word and did step back a little and give Aaron some of the work. But sometimes Hamilton would just go overboard and do even more work at home. It was hard to find time to meet with Hamilton with all his grading and preparing for his regular classes. 

The day before their first practice, Aaron sat in Hamilton’s room finishing up what they would need for the next day. They were trying to find materials for each of the different events so the students could start to pick out what they were going to work on. 

Hamilton was typing away on his computer while Aaron felt himself staring off into space. They had been working for the last hour. He started to stand up and pack up. 

“Well, Hamilton. I’m going to get going home. I think we have about everything we need for tomorrow.” 

Hamilton nodded and quickly waved before going back to his computer. 

Aaron stared at him for a few moments as he worked. “Hamilton, don’t you ever take a break? I’m having a hard time keeping up with all the work.” 

Hamilton shrugged, but didn’t take his eyes off his computer. “My brain just never seems to stop moving and thinking about all the work to be done. I learned how to function on very little sleep a long time ago. And I learned to appreciate coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.” He picked up his large mug of coffee sitting on his desk. 

Aaron shook his head staring at Hamilton as he drank from his mug. Aaron could never have that much coffee, especially at the end of the day. 

“Well try and get some rest tonight, so we’re ready for our first practice tomorrow.” 

Hamilton put his mug down and went back to his typing. “Don’t worry about me, Burr. I’ll be fine. I’m done with everything for tomorrow. Just working on lesson plans and writing my article for the school bulletin.” 

Aaron rolled his eyes and walked out the door. He didn’t think he would ever understand Hamilton. 

\-----

Aaron walked into school the next day with Angelica Schuyler, who taught 5th grade. She held open the door for him. 

“Hello there, Aaron. How are you today?” 

Aaron shrugged. He didn’t really get along with most of the other teachers at the school, but Angelica had always been nice to him. 

“Not too bad. Not really looking forward to today though...” 

She stopped in front of her classroom and turned to look at him. 

“Oh? Is it because of Alexander? I heard you’re working with him on speech team.” She laughed. “That’s gotta be interesting.” 

Aaron knew that Angelica and Hamilton were friends. He had even heard rumors in the teacher’s lounge that Hamilton had a thing for Angelica. He didn’t know how true that was. 

“Yeah, it’s been very interesting so far. We don’t really get along.” 

Angelica laughed again and beckoned him into her room. She closed the door. “I do love my gossip, but just wanted to make sure there’s no one else listening in.” 

She walked up to her desk and leaned on it. “Good to know it’s mutual. Alex told me you guys don’t get along too. He complains that you never want to meet with him and when you do you barely talk to him. Drives him nuts.” 

“Good.” 

“I agree. That man needs to be put in his place every now and then.” 

Aaron was ready to end this conversation. He’d had enough chatting for one day. He turned to leave. 

“Oh, Aaron. I gotta ask before you go, though. I heard you actually yelled at Alex. It just sounded like a rumor to me…”

Aaron sighed and turned back towards her. He nodded.

Angelica put her hand on his arm. “No! It’s true? I can’t see it! Wow, he must have really pissed you off! God I wish I could have been there.” 

“Well if you come after school today, you may witness it again.” She laughed, and he said, “Well, actually it’s been a little better ever since I yelled at him. I don’t want to murder him as much.”

“I will have to see you two in action sometime. Must be a sight to behold,” she said.

He rolled his eyes and started to walk towards the door. “Oh yeah, you know it...well thanks for the chat but I have to get going.” He put his hand on the handle. 

“I enjoyed talking with you Aaron! I wish we could do it more often. You need to come to the teacher’s lounge, we never see you!” 

Aaron just nodded. “We’ll see. Talk to you later!” He waved and walked into the hall, finally ending the conversation. 

\-----

Aaron walked into Hamilton’s room that afternoon, feeling ready. He gave a genuine smile to Hamilton and walked up to the front. 

“Well, Mr. Burr, sir. You certainly are looking more cheerful today!” 

Aaron just nodded. 

The practice went well. They divided the students up amongst the two of them. Aaron took some of the students and helped them pick their events and started to practice their pieces with them. By the end of the practice, Aaron felt in a better mood than he had in weeks. He waved to the last students as they walked out the door. 

“That wasn’t too bad, Burr.” 

Aaron turned and looked towards Hamilton. “Yeah, this might end up being fun if you don’t ruin it.” 

“Me ruin it? You wound me.” He put his hand over his heart dramatically. Aaron couldn’t help but laugh. 

Hamilton moved over to his desk. “You’re not going to stay and do work, are you?” 

“It’s what I do.” Hamilton sat down at his desk pulling open his computer. 

Aaron stared at him and leaned against one of the student’s desks. “Don’t you need to go home and take a break every now and then? I know I do. There’s a couple episodes of _Law and Order_ calling my name.” 

“You would watch that, Burr,” Hamilton looked up from his computer, suddenly giving Aaron an intense look. “You don’t have someone you live with--a wife or girlfriend?” 

Aaron shook his head. “No, I did before I started working here but…” he ended with a shrug. He had never really talked about his personal life with Hamilton before; he didn’t know why he was bothering now.

Hamilton nodded and looked away, looking suddenly out of sorts for a moment before answering. “Yeah, me neither.” 

Aaron didn’t know what came over him when he he asked Hamilton, “Do you want to go out for a drink? To celebrate our first successful speech practice?” 

Hamilton looked at him, eyes wide. For the first time since Aaron had met him, he seemed speechless for a few moments. “Wow, really?...That actually would be really nice.” He looked up at Aaron with a smile. “I’m always up for drinks, even if it means putting off my work.” 

Hamilton picked one of his favorite bars, which was a few blocks away from school. Aaron hadn’t really gone out enough to have a favorite place. 

Aaron ordered a beer and sat next to Hamilton at the bar. 

“So, Burr. Here we finally are. You know I’ve dreamed about this moment for a long time.” 

Aaron, in one of those sudden, mortifying flashbacks, remembered that Hamilton had asked him to drinks when they had first started working together. _Years_ ago.

“Oh, right.” Aaron rubbed the back of his neck, not knowing what to say. He still didn’t even really know why he was here now. 

Hamilton didn’t seem to notice his awkwardness, or just refused to acknowledge it. He took a drink and leaned in. “So, Burr since we’re finally here. You gotta tell me something about yourself, bro. We’ve worked together for three years and I feel like I know nothing about you.” 

Aaron felt even more awkward. This is why he had never went out with Hamilton before. 

He stared at Hamilton’s expectant face. He might as well get it over with. 

“Okay, okay. Well, if I share something you have to too. I don’t know anything about you either.” 

“And whose fault is that? I’ve been trying for years, man.” Hamilton shook his head. “Deal. I’ll share if you share.” 

Aaron took a long sip of his drink, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. 

“Let’s see. I graduated from Princeton--well, actually I ended up graduating early because it had been my parents’ dying wish.” 

Hamilton looked like Christmas had come early. “Burr!” He bounced around in his seat. “You’re an orphan? Of course you are! I’m an orphan!” 

Aaron stared at him. Hamilton’s eyes were huge and bright. For the first time since he had met the man in front of him, he felt a connection. 

He stared a bit too long. He looked away and returned to his forgotten beer. He cleared his throat. “Well, now it’s your turn.” Aaron chanced a glance at Hamilton again. He was finishing up his first drink. 

“Let me buy you a drink, Hamilton.” 

He looked like he was going to protest for a moment and then shrugged. Aaron motioned towards the bartender who quickly brought over another. 

“Thanks Burr.” Hamilton held up his glass and clinked it with Aaron’s. “Well I guess now I gotta hold up my end of the deal.” He took a long sip before continuing. “I don’t tell many people this Burr, so consider yourself lucky.” 

“Quit stalling.” 

Hamilton sighed loud and dramatically. “Fineeeeeee.” He took another long drink before quietly speaking. “Well, I’m an orphan. After my birth mother died, I came to the United States. I bounced around between foster homes for a while before I landed in a good one. I was never officially adopted but money was raised for me to go to college.” 

He returned to his normal obnoxious voice. “I said more than you. I think it’s back to your turn, Burr.” 

“Hey, hey. I never promised more than one thing.” 

“Oh, come on.” Hamilton was actually giving him puppy dog eyes. His lips pouted. 

Aaron’s face was betraying him. His lips started to curve up at the sight. He quickly frowned and rolled his eyes for good measure. 

He was about to start talking when he heard a loud voice. “What time is it?” 

Hamilton suddenly stood up and yelled, “SHOWTIME!” 

A slight man with curly hair pulled into a ponytail and a smattering of freckles on his face bounded up to the bar. He pulled Hamilton into a hug. 

“John Laurens! It’s been too long.” 

The two continued to talk quickly to each other. 

Aaron turned away from the pair feeling relieved but strangely downhearted at the abrupt ending of his conversation. He was finally feeling a connection with his fellow teacher. 

Well, at least he’d done his duty and went out with Hamilton once, even if it was brief. He quickly downed the rest of his beer and motioned to the bartender so he could close his tab. 

Aaron signed his check and stood up. “Burr? You’re leaving? But we just got here! And it was your turn!” 

He looked over towards Hamilton. His arm was draped around his friend who was now sitting at the bar. 

“You guys seem like you need to catch up. I don’t want to bother you.” 

“Burr, stay! Laurens won’t be here for long.” 

Laurens looked towards him. “But I already texted Mulligan and Lafayette.” 

Hamilton’s eyes went wide. “You did not! Oh man. Burr now you have to stay! It’s going to turn into a really fun night. You don’t want to miss it!” 

Aaron shook his head. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Hamilton.” 

Hamilton barely gave him a second look before he was back chatting with his friend. 

\-----

Aaron knew he wouldn’t make the mistake again of getting too close to Hamilton. He didn’t need friends at work. Especially ones that pissed him off. They would simply be work colleagues. Hamilton didn’t seem to be on the same page. 

“Burr! You missed out on a great night! The whole gang was back together,” Hamilton yelled at him in the copier room the next day. 

Aaron nodded and put his test in the copier to be printed. 

“I guess it didn’t seem like it was your scene,” Hamilton went on. “But thanks for having a drink with me anyways. Wish you could have stayed longer.” 

Aaron started gathering up his tests as they came out of the printer. 

“Maybe we could try it again? Always nice to meet a fellow orphan.” He gave him a wink. 

Aaron shrugged. “We’ll see.” He took the rest of his tests out of the printer and walked out of the room without a second glance. He thought about telling Hamilton that he didn’t want to be friends. He didn’t think that would go over well.


	3. I don't understand how you stand to the side

Aaron sat down in the back for their faculty meeting. He couldn’t help but scan the room, looking for Hamilton. He spotted his long dark hair right away. Hamilton was up front in his normal seat. Angelica waved to him from the end of the second row. He gave her a smile. 

Thomas Jefferson, who was the assistant principal, started the meeting a few minutes later. 

“Washington won’t be able to be here. But we just have a few things to discuss today. I’m hoping to get us out of here quickly.” Jefferson went through a few events that were coming up on the calendar, which he passed out to all the teachers. Aaron hadn’t really been paying attention; it had been a long day. He kept thinking about a few students that had really got on his nerves. His eyes focused on the back of Hamilton’s head. He watched as his ponytail bobbed up and down. Even from the back of his head, Aaron could tell that Hamilton was unhappy. 

All of a sudden, Hamilton’s hand burst into the air. 

Jefferson sighed. “Yes, Hamilton?” 

“Why did you say that there is choir concert on October 20th? Burr and I have our first speech meet that day! I know some students are in both groups.” Hamilton looked around the room. Aaron sat slightly down in his chair as if that would prevent Hamilton from seeing him. Hamilton gestured towards him, his eyes wild. 

Aaron hadn’t even been paying attention to the dates Jefferson had been reading. He looked closer at the calendar Jefferson had passed out. Hamilton was right. 

“The choir concert has been on the calendar since the end of last year, Hamilton. I don’t know what to tell you. You should have looked into it before you signed up for that meet.” 

“That choir concert was not on the school main calendar! I did look into it!” Hamilton yelled.

Aaron was frustrated too. He and Hamilton had made sure all their dates worked out before signing up for their meets for the year. He sat silent though; he didn’t need to cause a scene. Which Hamilton was already doing.

“Hamilton sit down. We can figure this out later. The rest of the teachers would like to go home sometime today.” Jefferson smirked and looked around at the other teachers who laughed. That only seemed to make Hamilton even madder. He slumped back into his chair. 

The rest of the meeting was uneventful. Jefferson did fulfill his promise and ended the meeting quickly and Hamilton stayed seated and silent. Once they were dismissed though, Aaron watched as Hamilton jumped up and immediately started arguing with Jefferson. Aaron shook his head and started to leave. He didn’t want to get involved. He could talk to Hamilton about it later when he had cooled down. 

Aaron had just made it to the door when he heard his name. “Burr! Thanks for all your help!” Hamilton said sarcastically. “Why are you leaving? We need to figure this out.” 

Aaron rolled his eyes and walked through the door. Hamilton followed behind him. 

“Hamilton, I’m frustrated too,” Aaron said, hoping to forestall the continued arguing. “But it was our mistake. You didn’t need to make a scene. It’s not that big of a deal. We’ll talk with Washington tomorrow and see what we can do.” 

“It’s not our mistake! It’s Jefferson’s. He’s the one that makes the main calendar and you know that the choir concert wasn’t on there. I bet he did this deliberately.” 

Aaron stopped walking, rubbing his hands over his face. It had been a long day and he just wanted to go home. He wearily turned to look at Hamilton. “Fine. Maybe it was Jefferson’s mistake. But do you really think he would do this on purpose?”

Hamilton nodded intensely. “Yes, he would. To me he would.” 

“I really don’t understand this pettiness between you two. It was probably just a mistake. It happens. I’m going home. We’ll deal with this tomorrow.” 

“It’s Jefferson’s fault! He started this!” 

Hamilton looked like he was about to say even more, but stopped when he saw Aaron’s face.

“Okay, Burr. Okay. See you tomorrow.” 

Without another word, Aaron walked away. 

\-----

The next morning, Aaron was checking his email on his phone and saw one from Hamilton. He had CC-ed Washington. And he had written it last night. _So much for waiting until today to talk to him_. 

Aaron quickly scanned the email. It was lengthy, but Hamilton had actually explained the problem logically and relatively professionally. He did complain about Jefferson though; Aaron winced as he read it. 

Once Aaron got to school, he went to Washington’s office. The door was closed, but looking through the window, he saw Hamilton was already in talking with him. Aaron lightly knocked on the door and opened it. 

“Sorry to interrupt but I believe this might pertain to me as well,” he said. 

Washington nodded. “Yes, yes. Burr, come in and take a seat.” 

Aaron sat down next to Hamilton. Hamilton’s hands were frantically tapping the arm rests, as though separate from the rest of him. 

“As I was telling Alexander, I’m glad we caught this problem early. I’m surprised the parents didn’t contact you about this already. We have come up with a solution, but we will need to ask Eliza if she thinks it will work.” 

Eliza was Angelica’s sister who also worked at the school as the music teacher. Aaron had only talked with her a few times, but she seemed very easygoing. 

“What’s the solution?” Aaron looked over to Hamilton again. He was still frantically tapping. It was distracting. 

“Well, since your speech meet starts early, and the concert is not until the evening, it should work out. We’re going to ask Eliza if those students on the speech team can come a little later. I’ll check with her.” 

Aaron nodded. That was pretty simple, as he knew it would be. 

“And what of Jefferson?” 

“Alexander. I don’t want to hear about it anymore.”

“But--” 

“You need to figure it out with him,” Washington said sternly. 

Hamilton’s mouth closed abruptly at his tone. He nodded. 

Washington sighed before looking back up at the pair with a small smile. “While I have you here though, I just want to check in how things are going working together?” 

Aaron looked at Hamilton expecting him to answer first. He was looking down at his hands, which were actually still for once. Aaron turned back towards Washington, realizing the silence had gone on too long. 

“Um, it’s fine. It’s working out just fine.” He didn’t know why he lied. This would have been the perfect opportunity to take the team for himself or give it up. It was becoming too much working with Hamilton so closely. 

Aaron turned to Hamilton to see how he would respond. He was staring at Aaron, his mouth popped open in surprised. He quickly recovered and cleared his throat. 

“Um, yeah. Yeah, sir. It’s just great.” 

Aaron chanced a glance at Washington. He didn’t look like he was buying it, but shrugged anyways. 

“Okay, if you say so. Well, I’ll talk to Eliza later today so we can get this all squared away.” 

Aaron nodded and stood up giving Washington a smile before stepping out the door.

Hamilton grabbed his arm when they were out of range of Washington's office. 

“What was that about?” 

“What do you mean?” Aaron pulled away, not meeting Hamilton’s eyes. 

“I know you don’t like me, Burr. You might not say what you believe, but it’s written all over your face.” 

He definitely didn’t know that. He turned back quickly. 

Hamilton was smirking. 

“What was I supposed to say, Hamilton?” He said looking down wearily.

“You could have been rid of me, Burr. I know it’s what you want.” He almost sounded-- disappointed? 

“Well, you could have tried to take the team all for yourself!” Aaron said.

“Where would the fun in that be?” Hamilton’s voice resumed its normal arrogance. Aaron peeked at Hamilton’s face again. The cocky smile was back. 

“Well, whatever. Nothing happened anyways. I gotta go get ready for the day.” Aaron walked away, trying not to notice how Hamilton’s smile faltered again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short one, but next 2 will be much longer and things will really start happening...soon.


	4. Man, the man is non-stop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trope express rolling in with this chapter..

“So I think next month we need to make sure we cover the Emancipation Proclamation. I’m going to do that same project I did last year too. Does that sound good?”

Aaron didn’t hear a response, so he looked up from his computer over to his coworker.

Who was sound asleep at his desk.

The two had stayed after speech practice to talk about their lesson plans for the next month. Aaron hadn’t wanted to, but Hamilton was insistent. Hamilton had seemed a little more tired than usual during their practice, but Aaron figured he hadn’t had his normal 10 cups of coffee.

“Hamilton.”

“Hamilton.”

Hamilton was still slumped over on his desk, his head resting on his open laptop.

Aaron poked the top of his dark head.

“Come on, Hamilton. Time to go home.”

Hamilton mumbled and sat up, twisting his neck.

“Burr?” He rubbed at his eyes. “Sorry. Where were we?” Hamilton looked at his computer, but couldn’t seem to focus.

“Hamilton, seriously? It’s late, you’re beat. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.”

“No, no. I’m fine.” He rubbed at his eyes again.

Aaron stood up. “You can’t even focus right now. Go home and go to sleep.”

“I have too much to do, Burr. I’ll be fine. You can go if you want. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Aaron closed up his computer and slung his bag over his shoulder. He looked back up at Hamilton, who was now pathetically typing at his computer.

Aaron wanted to leave him, but he just looked miserable.

He reached over and shut Hamilton’s laptop.

That seemed to wake Hamilton up at least. “What do you think you’re doing?? I was in the middle of something!”

Aaron picked up Hamilton’s laptop. Hamilton weakly tried to grab it back.

“Oh yeah, it really looked like you were getting a lot done there with your one-handed pecking at the keyboard. What are you hitting, fourteen words per minute?”

“Burr, come on. Give it back.” Oh god, he was whining now. Aaron almost gave it back, if only to make the whining stop. But he stuck to his guns.

“Nope. You’ll just have to stand up and get it.”

Aaron ran over to the door waving Hamilton’s laptop around.

Hamilton glared at him. Or at least that’s what it looked like he was doing, his eyes had already been half closed.

“Okay, Hamilton. I guess you don’t want your computer then..” Aaron started to open up the door.

Hamilton roughly stood up, looking like he was about to fall over. “Fine, Burr. Fine. You win.”

Hamilton gathered his things much slower than Aaron had ever seen him move.

“Oh my god, Hamilton. You’re killing me here.”

“You don’t have to wait for me.”

After a few painstaking moments, Hamilton moved towards the door.

He held out his hand. “Laptop?”

Aaron shook his head and grinned. “I’ll walk you to your car.”

Hamilton sighed and ran his hand through his hair, which had fallen out of its ponytail.

“Why are you doing this, Burr? You usually can’t wait to leave me and I can take care of myself anyways.”

Hamilton looked so pathetic. His eyes were bleary, his hair mussed and falling into his face.

Aaron didn’t really know how to answer the question so he simply shrugged. “Well, I’m not gonna make it a habit. Let’s just go, Hamilton.”

Aaron flicked off the lights and pulled Hamilton by the arm through the door.

\-----

Aaron had tried to put the strange incident out of his mind all night. He was almost a little worried about Hamilton.

As he unlocked the door to his classroom the next day, he looked down the hall to Hamilton’s room.

_I should make sure he’s okay. He wasn’t himself yesterday._

_NO. NO. He’s a grown man that can take care of himself. I don’t need him to think that we’re friends._

_Then why did I help him yesterday and walk him to his car???_

_He looked pathetic._

_I’m sure he was exhausted enough yesterday to just go home and go to sleep. He’ll be fine._

Aaron shook his head and opened his classroom door.

 

Aaron got so wrapped up in his classes and lessons the rest of the morning, that he didn’t think about Hamilton at all.

That was until he run straight into his fellow teacher while he was on his way to grab his lunch.

Aaron had been running through his lessons for the rest of the day on his way to the teacher’s lounge. He had just realized that he forgotten to make copies for one of his classes that afternoon when he felt someone run into his shoulder.

He turned, ready to discipline the student, when he saw it was Hamilton.

If Aaron thought Hamilton looked pathetic yesterday, he didn’t know what word to describe him today.

His face was pale, the dark circles under his eyes standing out more than usual. His normally neat goatee had extra stubble growing up around it. His eyes didn’t have their normal brightness and energy.

“Oh, sorry, Burr. My bad,” Hamilton said, his voice rough.

“My god, Hamilton. Are you okay? You look horrible.”

“Thanks, Burr. You choose now to say how you really feel.”

“I”m serious. Did you get any sleep last night?”

Hamilton brought a shaky hand up to his forehead, brushing away a strand of hair. “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Since when do you care so much about me? I gotta go get ready for this afternoon.” He turned and started walking down the hallway.

Aaron didn’t need to think twice about it this time. He ran after Hamilton and put his hand on his shoulder.

Hamilton attempted to pull out of Aaron’s grip, but lost his footing.

Aaron grabbed his arm before he fell down. “Whoah. I wasn’t even holding on that hard. I don’t think you’re okay.”

Hamilton again tried to pull himself away, but Aaron gripped even harder. “I told you. I’m fine! Nothing I can’t handle.”

Hamilton continued to struggle to escape. “This is getting embarrassing now, _Aaron_. You know how the students talk.”

Aaron rolled his eyes. Only Hamilton would try that tactic. He didn’t sound his normal cocky self though; Aaron could even feel Hamilton trembling under his grip. He brought one hand up Hamilton’s forehead, which was covered in sweat. He was burning up.

“I think you might be sick. You need to go home.”

“It’s only because you’re here now, Aaron.” _Why am I helping him again???_ “Come on, let’s go. I’m taking you to Washington’s office.” Aaron started to roughly pull him down the hallway.

Hamilton attempted to dig his heels in. “No, please, Burr. I’m really okay.”

Aaron stopped abruptly, poking Hamilton in the chest, his grip still tight on his arm. “You’re not doing yourself or the kids any favors by working when you’re sick.” He attempted to stay as far from Hamilton’s face as he could; he didn’t need to get sick either.

Hamilton stared at him defiantly for a few moments. Suddenly, Hamilton brought his free hand up to his mouth, his face white as a sheet.

Aaron knew that look, though he had only seen it a few times in his years of teaching. Not wanting it to be a moment he had to relive again, he dropped Hamilton’s arm.

Hamilton quickly took off in the direction of the bathroom.

Aaron walked towards the bathroom and waited outside. He looked at his watch. His lunch hour was fading fast and he still needed to make his copies and try to eat something.

He decided to wait a few more minutes.

Hamilton finally emerged five minutes later, his hair damp and plastered to his face and back of his neck.

He looked ashamed as he approached Aaron. “You win. Can you tell Washington I’m going home? I’ll pull out my emergency sub plans before I leave.”

Aaron tried to hide the smile that came to his face.

“No need to look so happy, Burr. I feel horrible.”

“Oh, now you admit it.”

Hamilton looked around before flipping him off and walking away.

 

Aaron talked to Washington right away and arrangements were made for a sub within the building. Aaron ran to his room to get his papers to copy and grabbed his sandwich, which he scarfed down while the copier was going. By the end of the day he was starving and cursing himself for helping Hamilton again, even though he knew it had been the right thing to do.

That night Aaron was relaxing watching Law and Order and doing some grading. He had just gotten through one whole pile of essays, when he heard a notification from his phone. He picked it up and saw he had an email...from Hamilton.

_Burr,_

_For our speech practice tomorrow can you make sure to make copies of the judge form to pass out to the students? We want to make sure they’re ready for our first meet which is coming up soon._

_Thanks,_

_A. Ham._

Aaron knew he shouldn’t be surprised that Hamilton was working and thinking about school while at home sick. But he still was anyways.

_Hamilton,_

_Why are you worrying about this right now? I have things under control. I’ll run the meeting tomorrow. I hope you’re not planning on working, that’s why we have sick days. Stop thinking about work and focus on getting better._

_A. Burr_

Aaron had just put his phone down and just barely started grading his next essay, when his phone chimed again.

_Burr,_

_Stop worrying about me, I’m fine. I took a nap this afternoon. I feel a lot better and will be coming in tomorrow._

_A. Ham._

How could one man be so _frustrating?_

_Hamilton,_

_Stay home, you’re sick. You threw up today at school. I bet you have the flu. Make sub plans, sleep, go see a doctor._

_A. Burr_

Aaron didn’t even bother trying to do work. He sat waiting for Hamilton’s next message to come in. And it did a minute later.

_Burr,_

_I’ll say it again: why do you even care? But even so. I’m not sick anymore, I’m fine. I’ll see you tomorrow._

_A. Ham._

This man lived to torture him. Aaron was sure of it. He got to typing a new message right away and knew exactly what to say.

_Hamilton,_

_If you do come to work tomorrow, I’ll make sure to tell Washington that you’re working while you have the flu. I bet he’d love to know you’re getting the kids sick with all your germs._

_A. Burr_

Aaron hit send, a smile on his face. He knew he’d get him now.

_Burr,_

_I’d never thought you of all people would stoop so low. Go ahead and tell him._

_A. Ham._

Aaron glared at his phone. He was calling his bluff. Hamilton knew he didn’t have the relationship with Washington that he did. He threw his phone on the coffee table roughly.

\-----

The next morning, after getting his room set up, Aaron went to Hamilton’s room. He walked into the classroom ready to yell at him, when he saw James Madison, one of their substitutes, look up at him from behind Hamilton’s desk.

“Oh hey, James. Hamilton still sick?” Aaron said nonchalantly.

“Yeah, I got the call this morning.”

Aaron smiled. “Let me know if you need anything.”

Aaron was in a good mood the rest of the day.

 

After his last class, he made his way to Hamilton’s classroom for speech practice. He stood up near the front of the classroom waiting for the students to come in.

“Hey, Mr. Burr! Where’s Ham?” Ben, one of the 8th grade students, yelled as he walked into the room.

Aaron fought hard against rolling his eyes at the nickname. Hamilton really shouldn’t allow his students to call him that.

“Mr. Hamilton was sick today, so it will just be me today.”

Aaron was glad to see Ben and the other students that were seated didn’t look too disappointed by that.

The practice went by quickly. Though Aaron struggled to try to get to all the students to help them, he was grateful for a chance to speak to the students more. He hated to admit that he actually did need Hamilton.

“That was a good practice, thanks for all the tips!” one student called out as they left the room. Aaron waved.

Two girls were packing up their bags near the back of the room, but Aaron could still overhear them. He laughed to himself. The kids really never seemed to understand that he was always listening.

“Mr. Burr is great, but I miss Ham. I hope he’s better by next week.”

Aaron had to agree.

\-----

Aaron walked by Hamilton’s room the next morning, and saw the familiar dark ponytail.

Hamilton looked up and waved him in. He gave him a small smile. His color definitely looked better, but Aaron could tell he still wasn’t 100 percent.

“So, you actually did decide you were sick yesterday, huh?”

“Well, I really was fine and I did try to come into work…”

Aaron sighed. He should have known.

“But my body didn’t want to cooperate with me. I was driving here and had to pull over to puke. A few times.”

“Oh, god. Hamilton!”

Hamilton shrugged. “Yeah, so I actually did eventually make it to school, got my sub plans ready and went home again.”

“I really hope you’re better today. You shouldn’t be overworking yourself.”

Hamilton stood up and leaned his head out. “Here, feel for yourself. No fever!”

Aaron crossed his arms. “I’ll take your word on it.”

“Hey, you’re the one who had your hands all over me before.”

“Goodbye, Hamilton.” Aaron turned to walk back to his room.

“Hey, Burr?”

He turned back slowly. “What is it? I have to go before the kids come.”

“Thanks for yesterday. I’m sorry I was a jerk to you, but it’s nice to know you really do care.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.”

Hamilton smiled. “Sure, Burr.” He gave him a wink.


	5. What are you tryin’ to hide, Burr?

The day of their first speech meet finally arrived a few weeks later. Aaron got to school early that morning and stood outside of the doors waiting for the students. It was a chilly morning and earlier than Aaron liked to get up on a Saturday. He pulled his jacket around him tighter and warmed his hands around his large coffee. He was going to need it if he was ever going to survive the day with Hamilton. 

Hamilton walked up a few minutes later, looking as chipper as ever. “Good morning, Burr!” 

Aaron shivered. “Hamilton, must you be so happy? It’s early, and cold. Take it down a notch.” 

“But it’s the kids’ first speech meet!” He was practically jumping up and down. After a few minutes, students started arriving. A few seemed barely awake, but most had just as much energy as Hamilton. He talked with them excitedly. Aaron made his way over to a few students who seemed nervous. 

“But Mr. Burr, I’m going to forget all my lines!” 

“You’ll be fine, Julia. You’ve never forgot your lines before, have you? Just get into character and don’t worry about the people watching.” 

Julia still seemed nervous, but pulled out her script and went over her lines with her partner. 

Once the bus arrived, Aaron and Hamilton corralled the students together. Aaron walked behind the group of students as they stepped onto the tiny, rickety bus. He knew their school was having budget issues, but he couldn’t believe how old this thing was. 

Aaron stepped onto the bus and saw that there was barely enough room for all of them. Hamilton was sitting in the front seat and patted the seat next to him. 

“it’s tight quarters in here, buddy.” 

Aaron rolled his eyes and sat in his seat. Hamilton started his standard perpetual chatter. 

“So how do you think they’ll do today, Burr? I think Alicia and Eric will do great with their prose reading...” Aaron tuned him out and sat staring through the front window. 

They had been driving for about 10 minutes, (with Hamilton talking the entire time) when the bus drove through a giant pot hole. 

Aaron felt himself fly out of his seat momentarily, smacking into Hamilton. His hand brushed against his leg. 

Crashing back into the seat, Aaron could feel his heart racing and suddenly could feel how close Hamilton actually was to him. He tried to get as far as the tiny bus seat would allow. 

“Burr, are you okay?” 

Aaron looked up at Hamilton, who was giving him an odd look. 

“Yep, fine. Never better,” his voice cracked a bit. _Were Hamilton’s eyes always that big and dark??_

“You just can’t even bear to sit this close to me?” 

Aaron needed to get off this bus _now._

He scoffed. “You know I hate you.” His voice didn’t have any of the malice it normally did when he spoke to Hamilton. 

Hamilton just laughed and continued his chattering. 

It was the longest day of Aaron’s life. Once they got to the school for the meet, he had to wait in the school cafeteria with Hamilton while the kids went off to their rooms to perform. Aaron pulled out some grading he had brought with, but Hamilton kept talking at him. 

“Hey Burr, did I do something wrong? You’re acting weirder than normal.” 

Aaron looked up from his grading. Hamilton was frowning. A few strands of his long dark hair had slipped from the ponytail and were framing his face. Aaron couldn’t help but stare. Hamilton quirked an eyebrow up. 

“Earth to Burr.” 

Aaron’s face felt hot. He turned away. “Sorry, just a little tired today.” 

He did not know what had come over him. He tried to focus on his grading, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Hamilton. _Alexander._ He rubbed at his face as if that could get the name of out of his brain. 

Aaron pretended to do his work, but he kept feeling Hamilton’s eyes on him. He tried to ignore it. 

He was glad when some of the students came back from their events. Aaron left a few times to see some of them perform, but the majority of the day was spent sitting across the table from Hamilton. 

Hamilton didn’t really attempt to talk to him again; he just chatted with the kids and was working the whole day. Aaron got a few things done, but couldn’t focus. 

When the finals lists were finally posted, Aaron was glad from the distraction and went off to see the couple students that had made it through to the finals. Hamilton came too, and sat up front. Aaron stood in the back. 

Their team did well overall. None of the students had gotten any awards, but it was good for their first tournament. 

Aaron sighed to himself as he walked behind the group making their way back to the bus. He was very happy the day was almost done, he needed to get home and away from Hamilton. 

Once they got back on the bus, Aaron briefly debated sitting with one of the students, but knew he couldn’t. He took his place in the small seat next to Hamilton. 

Aaron could feel his heart racing being so close to him again. 

“So not too bad for our first tournament, huh?” 

Aaron nodded. “Yeah, we can go over the judge’s sheets with the kids next practice.” 

“Sounds good.” Aaron could feel Hamilton’s eyes on him again. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve had this weird look on your face all day.” 

“Yeah, just tired like I said.” He scooted away from Hamilton, desperate to be as far as possible. 

“Is this the kind of situation like where I said I was fine and then ran to the bathroom to throw up?” 

“Hah, no. Fraid not. I’m really okay.” 

The ride back to school was a lot more quiet than in the morning. Hamilton didn’t really talk much except for a few comments about how to improve for the next tournament. Aaron was glad for it, but his traitorous brain could not stop thinking about the man sitting next to him. 

Once they got back to school, Aaron rushed off the bus, taking a deep breath. He was now grateful for the cold. The students started exiting the bus and he ushered the choir students off to the auditorium. 

He tried to stand as far away from Hamilton as possible. Hamilton for once stayed away and talked with the students as they waited to be picked up.

Once the last student was picked up, Aaron started walking towards his car, wanting to put the crazy day behind him. 

“Burr. Hey Burr!” 

Aaron turned towards Hamilton’s voice. Once he saw his face, his heart sped up. He hated it. 

“What do you want? It’s been a long day.” 

“Would you...no, you know what. Never mind.” 

Aaron sighed. “What is it?” 

“Would you want to stay and see the choir concert with me?” 

In his head he was screaming, _Hell no._ But apparently he had no control over himself and found himself answer in a shaky voice. “Um, sure.” 

Hamilton smiled, his eyes crinkling. 

Aaron walked back to towards the school where Hamilton was waiting holding the door open for him. 

_What are you doing? Turn around._

His feet kept moving towards the door. Hamilton gave him a wink as he passed by. Aaron felt his face grow warm again. 

Once they were inside alone in the darkened school hallway, Aaron’s mind starting filling with fantasies about Hamilton. Things he couldn’t imagine himself ever wanting. 

He shook his head violently. He had to get out of here. “You know what. I’m sorry, Hamilton. I have to go. This what a mistake.” 

Aaron turned to leave when he felt Hamilton’s hand on his bicep. He turned back towards Hamilton who stepped closer. Closer than he had ever been. 

Aaron felt like he was going to have a heart attack, his heart was racing so fast. 

_What is happening? No. This cannot happen. This is Hamilton! A man you hate! This is a mistake. It’s time to go home!!_

Aaron couldn’t seem to move though once Hamilton turned his impressive, bright eyes towards him. They were standing so close. “Burr. I know something’s up. I think I know what your problem is. And I can help.” Hamilton’s eyes moved towards Aaron’s lips. He gently guided him towards the nearest classroom. Aaron stopped thinking and allowed himself to follow. 

Once the classroom door was closed, Hamilton’s mouth was on his. He pushed him up against the door, wrapping his arms around his neck. Aaron’s eyes widened and his arms lay awkwardly at his sides. _Hamilton is kissing me. Hamilton is kissing me!_ Hamilton pulled away, breathing heavily, and stared at him expectantly. 

He raised an eyebrow. “Burr, a guy can get a complex if you just stand there all awkward. Come on I know you want this too.” Hamilton ground his hips against Aaron’s and he gasped. Hamilton started placing light kisses on Aaron’s neck. Aaron closed his eyes and moaned softly before finally giving in. 

He roughly grabbed Hamilton’s face, crashing their lips together. Aaron tangled his hands in Hamilton’s hair. He moaned and pulled Aaron tight against his body, pushing him against the door again. His hands settling on Aaron’s lower back. Hamilton pressed his mouth against Aaron’s, flicking his tongue in and out. Aaron lost himself in the feeling of Hamilton’s warm mouth against his. The stubble from Hamilton’s face burned his own as they continued to kiss. 

After a few heated minutes, Hamilton pulled away. 

“Jesus, Burr. I can’t believe you’ve kept all that locked inside,” Hamilton said in between deep breaths. 

Aaron rubbed his hand over his face, and stepped away. His mind slowly clearing. He couldn’t believe that had just happened. _With. Hamilton._ Aaron kept his hands over his eyes. 

_Why did you give into him? Why?_

“You okay, Burr? Did this help fix whatever was wrong?” He heard Hamilton coming closer. He put his hand on Aaron’s arm. 

Aaron opened his eyes to find Hamilton standing right in front of him, a cocky smile on his face. 

Aaron glared and pushed him away. “This was a mistake. Goodbye.” He rushed out the door, leaving a disappointed Hamilton in his wake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. That's that. No turning back now...


	6. I'm getting nervous, sir

Aaron rushed home, his mind screaming at him. 

_Hamilton. You just made out with Hamilton. Fucking Alexander Hamilton!_

He walked into his small apartment calmly, locking the doors behind him. Once inside he ran for his bedroom, throwing himself into bed. He picked up his pillow and screamed into it. 

Aaron’s mind kept replaying the moment over and over. He banged his head against the wall lightly. He hated that it had felt so good to kiss someone again. It had been a _long_ damn time.

 _But Hamilton, HAMILTON?_

Aaron laid with his pillow over his head for a long time trying to think of what to do. He was grateful it was the weekend and he wouldn’t have to see Hamilton until Monday. 

They had another speech meet coming up in a few weeks, and Aaron shuddered to think what would happen if they spent more time together again. 

And then Aaron knew what he had to do. He whipped the pillow off his face and went to his living room. He took his laptop out of his school bag and sat down on the couch to type an email.  
\-----

When Monday morning finally came, Aaron struggled to get out of bed. He had thought about calling in sick, but knew he would have to face Hamilton sooner or later. 

Once he got to school, Aaron cautiously walked down the hallway, eyes darting around. 

He only passed a few teachers. He gave a small wave to each of them, hoping his face wasn’t showing how nervous he felt. As he was opening the door to his classroom, he saw Angelica walking towards him.

 _Oh shit. I hope she hasn’t talked to Hamilton yet._ She waved to him. He attempted a normal-looking smile. 

She smiled back. “Hey, Aaron. I gotta talk to you.” She cocked her head towards his room. 

“Um, okay?” His stomach clenched with nerves. 

Once inside she turned towards him. “Aaron, what the hell is going on?” It sounded like she knew. 

_Shit. Shit. Shit._

“What do you mean?” He moved towards his desk and placed his bags down, not meeting her eyes. 

“Alex is a mess. He told me that you quit the speech team. But he wouldn't tell me why.”

“Well, like I told you before, we didn’t get along. I just had enough.” He finally looked up towards her. She wasn’t buying it. 

She stared at him a few moments. “Really? Is that it? I don’t think Alex would be so upset if that was the case. He said the team did really well at the meet and you two were working together better. He said you went out for drinks, even.” 

Aaron closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you. It really wasn’t working out.” 

“Did he do something wrong? God knows he has many times before.” She sighed. “You should go talk to him anyways.” 

“I will.” 

She nodded. “Okay. See you later, Aaron.” 

Aaron could hardly focus the whole morning; he kept stumbling over his words while he was teaching. The kids didn’t seem to notice. He was still worried about seeing Hamilton, and yet wanted to see him again. 

When he was walking his homeroom out to lunch, he finally saw Hamilton. His heart sped up. He stopped walking momentarily. Hamilton didn’t even look over to him. He was talking with some of the students as they walked down the hallway. 

Aaron felt a hand tap on his shoulder. “Um, Mr. Burr? Are we going to go to lunch?” 

Aaron quickly turned around, his face heating up. His class was standing quietly waiting for him. “Oh, sorry guys. Thank you for being quiet.” 

They started giggling and whispering to each other. He saw a few eye rolls as well. 

When they got to the cafeteria, Aaron saw Hamilton dropping off his class. He knew this was it: he couldn’t ignore him anymore. 

Hamilton turned at the door and saw Aaron. His eyes widened. Then he seemed like he tried to recover and said, coolly, “Mr. Burr, sir.” 

“Hamilton.” 

Aaron folded his arms across his chest to keep them from shaking. They stood across from each other a few moments. Aaron stared at a particularly giant scuff on the floor and tried to concentrate on the low drone of students’ voices coming from the cafeteria. 

“So are you really quitting?” Hamilton said.

Aaron sighed and nodded, his eyes still fixed on the floor. He could already hear the disappointment in Hamilton’s voice; he didn’t want to see it in his face too. 

He heard Hamilton mumble angrily to himself. “That’s fine. That’s fine!” Aaron finally looked up to see Hamilton gesturing wildly and pulling at his hair. “Shit, this is all my fault.” 

“Um, Hamilton?” 

He stopped, putting his hands on his hips. “What?” 

Aaron gestured towards the open doors of the cafeteria. “We should probably not do this here.” 

Hamilton rolled his eyes and started walking. They walked silently down the hall. Aaron kept turning to look at Hamilton, who was staring straight ahead, his hands clenched into fists. 

When they got to Hamilton’s classroom, Aaron took a seat in one of the student’s desk. Hamilton started pacing the front of the room. 

Aaron had rehearsed this conversation over and over the past weekend, but now didn’t know what to say. Hamilton’s frequent pacing wasn’t helping either. “Hamilton. Sit down.” 

Of course he continued to pace, and now starting running his hands through his hair. He finally stopped a few moments later, his eyes on the floor. 

“I’m sorry, Burr. I’m sorry,” Hamilton said in a soft voice. 

Aaron was about to respond but Hamilton talked over him. “This is all my fault. This is all my fault!” He looked pained for a moment. “I know I shouldn’t have forced you to do anything but I really thought you wanted it. I didn’t want you to quit!” He looked up, his eyes wild. 

He continued to run his hands through his hair and started pacing again. Aaron opened his mouth to respond, but Hamilton continued, “You say you don’t like me, I know. I thought it was just our little game. Then you’re acting all weird. And you kissed me back. You did! Now I’m just so confused, I don’t know what you want. You never say how you actually feel. How I am supposed to really know?” His voice was getting louder now. 

Aaron could feel himself getting more and more angry as Hamilton talked. Hamilton was going to blame him for this? He hunched over in his seat, curling his arms tighter to his body. Hamilton stopped in front of him. “Well, aren't you going to say something, _Aaron_. What do you want??”

Aaron stood up, glaring at Hamilton and trying but failing to keep control of his voice, “I’ve been trying to, but like always, you won’t let me! For the love of God, Hamilton, will you sit down and let me talk??!”

Hamilton looked taken aback and nodded, sitting down at the desk next to Aaron. 

“I’m sor--” Hamilton started again. 

“No. NO. It’s my turn to speak now.” 

At this Hamilton did look ashamed, and he nodded again and put his head down. 

Aaron sat down and rubbed his hands over his face, feeling the sudden anger rush out of him. He gathered his thoughts. He didn’t want Hamilton to know how right he was. _If Hamilton knew how you really felt_...He fell back on his rehearsed speech he had practiced in his head. “I thought about this a lot this weekend. I think it’s best right now if we spend less time together and that’s why I want to quit helping with speech team.” 

Hamilton opened his mouth to speak; Aaron shot him a look. “I still need to talk to Washington right now about it, but I think it’s for the best.” 

“But our team did well with the two of us, _together_.” 

Aaron knew that was true. He did help rein in Hamilton’s over-enthusiasm to get him back on track. Aaron made the mistake of looking towards Hamilton, those huge bright eyes pleading with him. _Those eyes_ … He shook his head. _No. Stick to the plan._

“I know, but you ruined that. I just can’t.” Aaron looked away towards Hamilton’s whiteboard. 

Hamilton let out a long sigh. “I told you I was sorry. I really thought--” 

Aaron snorted.

“What?” Hamilton exclaimed. 

Aaron couldn’t resist digging at him. “Did you actually say that you were sorry? It was a little buried.” 

“Ugh. I’ll never understand you, Burr,” he sighed. “Well, you really shouldn’t quit all because of me anyways. The kids will be disappointed if you quit.” 

_He had to bring up the students_ …Aaron put his head against the desk. 

He heard a noise of triumph from Hamilton. He knew he won. 

“Fine. Fine,” Aaron said into the desk. He pointed towards Hamilton. “But we are work colleagues only. We’re not friends, and we are DEFINITELY not anything more than that, understood?” 

Hamilton looked like he wanted to say more, but simply gave him a nod and held out his hand. 

Aaron stared at his hand trying to put in his head that they were just co-workers. That this was something normal to do with every co-worker. He grabbed Hamilton’s hand lightly and quickly, not meeting his eyes. Then he left the room without another word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> because this is going to work out so well for you, Burr....
> 
> thanks again for comments and kudos!


	7. I'll keep all my plans close to my chest

Aaron stood in Hamilton’s classroom, leaning against the radiator. He was coaching one of his least favorite students, Josh, who did his least favorite event, Humorous Interpretation. 

“I like all your voices, but I think you still need to work on popping between each different character.” 

“I have been working on them!” Josh whined. “Can’t I change events?” 

Aaron continued to smile, used to dealing with students’ whining. “Sorry, Josh. We can’t do that now. Remember we said that? You have to stick with the event you chose.” 

“But I didn’t know this event would be so stupid!” 

Aaron sighed. Josh had been complaining about his event every practice since their first meet and he was getting sick of it. He looked around the room for Hamilton, who was much better at dealing with Josh. 

Aaron found Hamilton across the room, working with 2 students. He looked up and smiled. Aaron smiled back, his heart only speeding up a _little._

_Co-workers. Remember, you are co-workers._

Things had definitely been awkward between Aaron and Hamilton. Aaron had been working hard drawing the lines between the two of them. He tried to focus more on the students and helping them out. It seemed to be working, but every now and then…

Aaron looked away from Hamilton, focusing on Josh once more. “Josh, let’s practice popping between those characters again.” 

At the end of practice, Hamilton approached Aaron. “Good practice today, how did Josh do?” he said with a smirk. 

“I’m not coaching him again. He’s all yours,” Aaron replied, grabbing his bag from the front of the room. 

Hamilton laughed and started gathering his things as well. 

“You’re actually going home right away tonight?” Aaron found himself saying. 

Hamilton nodded. “I’m meeting up with Angelica and some friends tonight. Oh hey!” Hamilton looked over to Aaron. “Do you want--” 

“Hamilton,” Aaron sighed, cutting him off. 

Hamilton looked up, the excitement leaving his eyes. “Oh right. Sorry, never mind.” Hamilton gave him a thin smile. 

Aaron stood awkwardly with his bag. This had been happening frequently in the last few weeks. Hamilton kept trying to get to close again. They stood in silence for a brief uncomfortable moment before Aaron slung his bag over his shoulder. 

“Have a good night,” he said, walking towards the door. 

Hamilton looked like he was about to follow him out, but then gave him a wave and stayed at his desk. 

\----

LIke many nights since that first speech meet, Aaron lay in bed and couldn’t stop thinking about Hamilton. 

He put his head into his pillow, Hamilton’s face swimming into his mind. He tried to think of anything else. But like the real Hamilton, he annoyingly wouldn’t stop. 

Aaron sat up and grabbed his well-worn copy of _Fellowship of the Ring_ from the side table. He hoped that reading his favorite book would help. 

It did for a few minutes, before he got to a particularly wordy passage describing a forest, and his mind started to wander. Back to Hamilton’s eyes. Frustrated, he tossed the book to the floor. 

It had been so long since he had even liked someone. _Why does it have to be Hamilton?_ he thought for what seemed like the thousandth time. Hamilton was obnoxious and arrogant, so unlike everyone Aaron ever had been with or even liked. Aaron’s last relationship was years ago, in college. Nowadays he never wanted to go out and try to meet anyone. 

But of course now there was Hamilton. 

Aaron turned his lamp off and pulled his covers up. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep. He tried focusing on his lessons for tomorrow and everything he had to get ready for his classes. It didn’t help. 

Instead Aaron’s mind was once again back in that classroom, Hamilton’s lips on his. 

Hamilton roughly pushed him into the door. 

_“You like this, don’t you, Burr.”_

_Hamilton pulled off and started moving his hands down his body. He unbuckled Aaron’s pants. He reached down towards his ever hardening erection._

Aaron groaned loudly. _Fuck it._ He pushed his hand down his pajama pants. He grabbed onto his own hard cock. He worked his hand roughly up and down, thinking of Hamilton the whole time and hating himself for it. 

\----

The next speech meet finally rolled around and this time Aaron really seriously considered taking a sick day. He laid in bed that morning long past his alarm. When he finally got up, he scrambled to get ready. There were kids waiting with Hamilton by the time he arrived. 

“Oh, you finally decided to join us! Someone needed some extra sleep this morning,” Hamilton said, obnoxiously. 

Aaron glared at him. He turned away from Hamilton and started talking with some of the students, helping them get ready for the day. 

Once the bus arrived, Aaron started counting the students to make sure they were all accounted for. There were less students competing today. It meant he would have his own seat and wouldn't have to relive the _incident._

Aaron walked on the bus. Hamilton had already taken his seat right up front. He looked at Aaron expectantly. 

Aaron broke the eye contact and sat in the seat across from Hamilton. He took his headphones out and started listening to one of his podcasts that he had saved.

He felt Hamilton’s eyes on him the whole bus ride. 

Aaron listened to his podcasts the rest of the day while he was doing his work. It helped a little. He was able to get some grading done as the students were competing. He pointedly looked away from Hamilton too. 

On the bus ride home, he had put in headphones in again and was looking out the window. A light rain had started. 

He felt a tap on his shoulder. 

He turned to see Hamilton, his arm outstretched across the aisle, a strange look on his face. Aaron sighed and pulled one earbud out. “What?” 

“Are you done ignoring me yet?” 

To Aaron’s horror, he stood up and sat down in the seat next to him. 

“Hamilton. What are you doing?” He pinched the bridge of his nose. He paused his podcast, but left the other earbud in. 

Hamilton started poking at a hole in the brown seat. “I just wanted to chat about how you think we did today. That’s something co-workers do, right?” he said mockingly. 

“Please, don’t,” Aaron said softly. He pulled his other earbud out and listened to the chatter of the students around him. It didn’t seem like they were listening. 

Aaron stared at Hamilton’s fingers as he made the hole even bigger, ripping the brown plastic. 

“Hey, this is just a normal conversation between two teachers. You’re the one making it weird.” 

Aaron took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “We’ll talk later, okay? I want to finish this up,” he said, holding up his phone. He turned away, looking once more at the rain now pounding hard on the windows. 

The rain turned to freezing rain by the time they were unloading the bus back at school. Aaron stood with the students, shivering underneath the school entrance overhang. 

Hamilton was standing a few feet away, shaking horribly. He was only wearing his nice suit jacket, which was definitely not warm enough for this weather. 

The students started complaining. 

“Mr. Burr, can we go inside?? I’m freezing!!” Daniel, one of the 7th graders, called out. 

“Our keycards won’t let us in, sorry.” 

“This is child abuse! I’m going to complain to Mr. Washington!” Daniel said. 

“Go ahead,” Aaron said, crossing his arms tightly in front of his body to stay warm. “There’s nothing I can do about it.”

He looked over to Hamilton, whose teeth were now chattering. He didn’t want to care, but he couldn’t stop himself. “Hamilton, if you want to go. I’ll stay with the rest of the kids.” 

Hamilton looked at him, his eyes watering. “No, I’m fine. Really I am.” 

The small group of students all looked over to Hamilton and laughed. “Seriously, Ham? Mr. Burr is letting you go!” 

Hamilton chuckled. “Okay, okay. Thanks, Burr.” He gave Aaron a look. “See you, kids.” He ran to his car. 

\----

Aaron was grateful when they finally got to Thanksgiving break. He needed a break from the students...and from Hamilton. He still couldn’t seem to get over him, as much as he tried. 

He went to Connecticut to spend Thanksgiving with his sister Sally’s family.

Sally greeted him at the door with a long hug. “Oh my god, little brother, it’s so good to see you!” she said, holding on to him tightly. She finally let go and held open the door for him as he carried in his bag. 

“Uncle Aaron!” A small blur came whipping around the corner and attached itself to his leg. 

“Hey...Ronny!” Aaron lifted his nephew up, giving him a big kiss on the cheek. “You’re getting so big, little man!” 

Ronny giggled as Aaron placed him down. He held out his hand. “Come on! I need to show you my room!” 

Aaron smiled. He grabbed onto Ronny’s hand and let himself be pulled up the stairs. He shrugged at his sister as they walked past. 

“You two have fun! I’m going to go finish getting dinner ready!” She picked up Aaron’s bag and walked down the hallway. 

Aaron sat down on the floor of his nephew’s room as he showed him all the new things he had gotten since he had last been here. Which Aaron was ashamed to admit had been a year ago. He loved his sister and her family, especially Ronny, who Sally had lovingly named after him. 

He smiled proudly at Ronny with each new toy he presented to Aaron. 

“Uncle! Uncle! Can you read me this book?” 

“Of course!” 

Ronny sat in his lap, getting comfortable. Aaron looked at the book, _If You Give a Mouse a Cookie._ “This is one of my favorites, Ronny.” He held tight to his nephew as he dramatically read the book. 

They were called down to dinner a half hour later. Aaron was feeling happy, his mind blissfully clear of Hamilton. 

Ronny lead them into the dining room, where Sally and her husband were already sitting. “Uncle Aaron, sit next to me!” He patted the seat next to him. 

Aaron smiled widely and sat down next to his nephew. Tap, Sally’s husband, was seated on his other side. He passed Aaron the wine. “Hey, Aaron. We haven’t seen you in a while!” 

Aaron poured himself a big glass. “Yeah, sorry, things have been busy in New York.” 

“Oh yeah?” Sally passed the salad to him. “What kind of things?” she said suggestively. 

Aaron rolled his eyes, taking the salad from her. This is how things always seemed to go when he visited. There had been a reason he hadn’t come in so long. “You know, lots of work.” 

“Such details as always, Aaron.” 

He poked at his salad. “What do you want me to say? I’m still teaching at the same school. Well, I guess the new thing is that I’m helping with the speech team.” _Oh God. Why did you bring that up?_

That seemed to spark Sally’s interest. “Oh yeah! That’s good for you. I remember you used to love doing that in high school. Are you running that by yourself?” 

“Um...no.” Aaron took a long drink from his wine glass. Sally looked like she was going to ask for more details when Ronny knocked over his water. “Uh oh!” he yelled. 

Aaron reached over to help wipe up the mess, glad for the distraction. 

The rest of the dinner continued uneventfully and Aaron was eternally grateful that Sally had not pestered him for more information about running speech team. 

\-----

The next morning, Aaron was sitting on the floor playing trains with his nephew. He heard Sally sigh from the couch. 

“Aaron, why don’t you live closer? 

Aaron picked up one of the trains his nephew gave him and sent it moving down the track. “Sal, we’ve gone through this before.” 

“I know. I know, but I just see the way you are with Ronny and you’re my only family.” 

She was always guilting him like this. Every time he visited. He didn’t respond, just continued to play with Ronny. 

“Something’s up with you.” 

“What?” Aaron put down the train, glancing over to his sister. 

She crossed her arms, a knowing smile on her face. “You’ve been acting weirder than usual and just have this look on your face. I know you, Aaron. Spill it.” 

He had Sally had been close when they were younger, especially after their parents died. She knew him too well. He hadn’t thought about it before, but maybe he did need to talk to someone about this. She would be the only person he could talk to. 

He patted his nephew on the head and went to sit next to his sister. 

“It’s complicated.” 

“It always is, Aaron.” She put her arm around his shoulder. He leaned into her like he had when he was little, enjoying the comforting squeeze of her hand on his shoulder. 

“So what’s the problem?” she said. 

He sighed. “I am having feelings about a co-worker. Feelings I should not have.” 

“Oh no, Aaron caught feelings!” she said seriously before bursting into laughter. 

Ronny looked over at her and smiled when she laughed. 

“Oh, Ronny dear. Can you go play in the other room with your Dad? I need to talk to Uncle Aaron.” 

Ronny picked up a few toys, and waddled out of the room, dropping trains as he went. Aaron smiled after his nephew, but quickly scowled when he heard his sister continued to laugh at him. 

Aaron pulled away from her, crossing his arms. “Fine. I’m not telling you any more.” 

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll control myself.” She knocked her shoulder against his. “Go on.” 

“The thing is, he annoys me so much. I can’t stand him! And yet…” He turned away from his sister, burrowing himself into the couch. “I can’t stop thinking about him,” he practically whispered. 

Sally was silent. Frustrated with her lack of response, he turned to look at her. She looked giddy. 

“Oh, my God, Aaron. This is so great!” She threw her arms around him. 

He sat stiffly as she hugged him. “No, it’s not. It’s a nightmare. I have to be around him constantly, and...we even…” He stopped suddenly, his face heating up. “No. I can’t tell you that.” 

She rolled her eyes. “Well of course now you have to tell me. You secretly want me to know. I bet you haven’t told anyone yet. Who am I kidding? Who would you even tell?” Sally poked him. “Tell me. Tell me. Tell me!” she repeated over and over again childishly. 

Aaron’s face burned. He had not said it out loud yet. He felt like if he did it would make it real. 

“Um...um….okay,” he took a deep breath. “We kissed.” It came out so quickly he wondered if Sally had even heard him. 

He put his hands over his face. She started hitting his arm. “OH. MY. GOD. AARON. DID YOU MAKE OUT AT SCHOOL?” She punctuated each word with a light punch to his arm. 

He groaned into his hands. 

Sally yelled with glee. “This is the greatest Thanksgiving ever!” 

Aaron sunk further into the couch, his entire body burning with embarrassment. 

“Little brother, I love you so much. Thank you for telling me this.” She threw her arm around him again. He kept his face in his hands, wanting to be back home in his bed. 

She rubbed his arm soothingly. “Now what are you going to do about it?” 

“I don’t know,” he said into his hands. 

Sally pulled his hands from his face. “Come on, Aaron. We need to figure this out. I want to help!” 

He sat staring at his hands for a long time. Sally continued to rub his arm. 

“I don’t know if I want to do anything about it. I tried to get away from him, so I tried to quit running the speech team. He wouldn’t let me. Well, really, I just gave into him. _Again._ He has some sort of power over me. I told him that I would keep working with him, but we would be co-workers only. That hasn’t worked either. I keep trying to ignore how I feel. We’re now so awkward around each other, I can’t stand it.” 

He couldn’t believe how much he just told his sister. It was more than he had shared with anyone in a long time. 

“Aaron, I am really not seeing the problem here. Why can’t you just let yourself be happy and be with him?” 

“I told you. I keep having these feelings for him, but yet he still continues to be an arrogant loud-mouthed..” He stopped and looked toward the other room where Ronny was still near by. “Butt,” he finished with a smirk. Sally smiled. 

“Why does it have to be him that I like? If it was anyone else I would go for it.” 

Sally snorted. “I don’t know if that’s true. But it sounded to me like this guy likes you too. So you should definitely go for it. You need some excitement in your life, Aaron.” 

Aaron nodded, ready to be done with this conversation. 

“What’s his name?” 

“Ugh, I’m done with this. Hey Ronny! Bring those trains back in here!” He stood up. 

Sally laughed. “Oh, come on, Aaron. You’re no fun.” 

Ronny came running back into the room, crashing into Aaron’s legs. “Finally, you’re done talking! Come and catch me!” Ronny took off down the hall and Aaron, smiling once more, ran after him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IRL, the whole situation with Aaron's brother-in-law Tapping was super creepy. He was their tutor! And a lot older. Yikes. 
> 
> Tumblr: [emilyinthebluebox](http://emilyinthebluebox.tumblr.com/)


	8. We keep meeting

The entire drive home, Sally’s words echoed in Aaron’s head. _Was she right? Should I just let myself be with...Hamilton?_

The idea seemed ridiculous. They were so different. Hamilton still never failed to rile Aaron up. He knew they did share some similarities, but he just didn’t see how it would work.. 

_Hamilton probably wouldn’t even like you if he really knew you._

_But do you really even know him?_

Aaron thought back to their short outing at the beginning of the year. He remembered the brief spark of connection they started to have. 

Hamilton had seemed so excited when Aaron had shared that he was an orphan. He did seem to have an interesting history...maybe there was more to him than the talkative abrasive person that Aaron had come to know. 

The first day after Thanksgiving break was a teacher institute day. Aaron woke up that morning feeling exhausted. At least I don’t have to teach today...but Hamilton. He would be with Hamilton all day long. 

He got to the meeting early and took his typical seat in the back of the room. Hamilton was already there and seated up front. He was talking with Eliza Schuyler. He was leaning in to talk to her, a huge smile on his face. 

Aaron heard someone next to him clear their throat. He turned and saw Angelica sitting there. 

“Oh hey, Angelica,” he said nonchalantly. She was smirking. Had he really been staring at Hamilton for that long? 

“Hey, yourself. How was your break?” 

Aaron was relieved she didn’t say anything about Hamilton, though it looked like she wanted to. He shrugged. “Not too bad. Went to visit my sister.” 

“That’s nice! Does she live around here?” 

“She’s in Connecticut. How about you, what did you do?” 

“My sisters and I went to visit our father upstate.” She gestured towards Eliza, who was still chatting with Hamilton. Aaron noticed that Hamilton looked more awake than he had in months; he figured he must have actually gotten rest and relaxed over break. Though he had a hard time imagining Hamilton ever sitting still and relaxing. Even now, his hand was tapping his pen on the desk he was sitting at while he was still talking with Eliza. 

He heard Angelica laugh. He turned quickly to face her, mortified. He must have been staring for too long. Again.

“Sorry, just a little tired this morning.” 

“Uh huh. Oh, Aaron. You should have taken my advice and figured this out before.” 

He tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean?” 

“Our conversation regarding...” She coughed and subtly pointed to where Hamilton was sitting. 

“Oh. I did. I talked to him,” he whispered, not wanting the other teachers to overhear them. 

“Oh, I know, but I don’t think you really figured it out,” she said with a laugh. 

Aaron had half a mind to tell her to mind her own business, when Washington walked up to the front of the room to start their meeting. He turned away from Angelica, trying to focus on Washington. He was now talking about revamping their math curriculum, which didn’t even have anything to do with his position. His eyes drifted once again to the back of Hamilton’s head, noticing his long dark hair was now up in a bun. 

He really did need to figure this out. He started mindlessly doodling in his notebook he had brought with, all the while thinking about his Hamilton problem. 

During their lunch hour, which Aaron spent in his classroom alone, he begrudgingly decided what he would have to do. 

After lunch, the teachers met again briefly. Aaron ended up sitting next to Eliza, who only smiled politely at him when he sat down. But his eyes sought out Hamilton, who again was up front. He barely heard as Washington went over the next month’s events and their testing schedule for January.

“We finished up a little early today, so feel free to work in your classrooms until 3:00,” Washington said with a smile. The teachers cheered, grateful to have time to do their own work, and glad to be done with meetings. 

Aaron hovered at the door as the rest of the teachers passed. He smiled politely at them as he waited for Hamilton. 

Hamilton was up front talking with Washington, gesturing wildly. 

He started to feel nervous once he saw finally saw Washington sigh and dismiss Hamilton. He walked past Aaron, muttering to himself. He didn’t seem to notice Aaron standing there. 

“Um, Hamilton?” he said nervously. 

Hamilton whipped his head towards him. “Oh, hey Burr. Didn’t see you there.” 

“Can we talk?” Aaron said, walking out of the room. 

Washington passed by the pair and gave them a nod. “Have a good afternoon, gentlemen. Keep up the good work with that speech team!” 

They both smiled and responded, “Thanks!” 

They looked to each other again as they walked down the hall. 

“Is this _co-worker_ talk or something more?” Hamilton said sarcastically. 

_Why should I even bother with him??_ Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. 

“Hamilton, I’m really trying here, can you not?” 

“I’ve been trying for the last few weeks! And all you’ve done is ignore me!” Hamilton replied. 

“Just get inside, Hamilton,” Aaron said.

“We have to stop meeting like this, Burr,” Hamilton said coyly when they were in his room. 

“Hamilton, sit down,” Aaron said trying to keep his voice calm. 

“Okay, okay.” Hamilton sat down in one of the student’s desks, stretching his legs across to rest on another seat. 

Aaron sat at his desk. “Things have been weird lately, I’m sorry.” 

Hamilton snorted. “You think?” His eyes were fixed on the floor, his feet tapping out a pattern on the chair in front of him. 

Aaron rubbed his hands across his short buzzed hair. “I think we need to get to know each other a little better. We never did get to finish that conversation from earlier this year.” 

Hamilton lifted his head up, his feet still. “Seriously?” 

“Unfortunately, yes.” 

Hamilton was staring at him, his eyes intense and more huge than normal. Aaron could not look away. 

The heat was rising in his face as he asked, “So I think it was my turn, right?” 

Hamilton leaned back in his seat and signaled to him. “Go on.” 

“So I told you before I was an orphan--” 

“How could I forget!” Aaron glared at Hamilton. “Sorry, sorry!”

“Well, I do have one sister, Sally. She lives with her husband and son, Ronny, in Connecticut.” 

“Ronny? What’s that short for?” Hamilton asked. 

“Aaron. She named him after me,” he replied quietly. 

“That’s so cute, Burr! I love it. Why don’t you live closer to them then? I mean, he’s your namesake!” 

“Thinking about moving there right now, honestly,” he deadpanned.

“I’m being serious! Why do you live in New York by yourself when you actually have family? If I had family I would want to live by them.” 

He did not need to get into that with Hamilton. “Well, I’ve shared more than enough. Tell me something I don’t know about you.” 

“I don’t know what else I can say,” Hamilton said, his eyes suddenly distant. 

“There’s a first,” Aaron replied. 

“Ha, ha. You’re so hilarious. There. That’s something I didn’t know about you! But really Burr. Let’s just talk about school. What did you think about that testing schedule Washington handed out?” 

Aaron hesitated before replying. “Honestly, I wasn’t really paying attention...” 

“Oh, Burr, you disgust me. Well you didn’t miss much because I think Jefferson made the schedule. And it’s going to last for two weeks in the mornings.” 

“Two weeks? Seriously?” 

“I know. I’d rather just have it over and done with. I’m really sick of all this testing we have to do. What’s the point of it all anyways? It doesn’t show what our kids really know. I can tell you that I really suck at tests, but I’m smart and a test wouldn’t show that.” 

“And modest.” 

“Hey, I never claimed to be!” 

After a few more minutes of talking, Hamilton got a text. He read it quickly and laughed while tapping out a reply. 

“Shit, I just noticed what time it was. Sorry Burr, I gotta go. I have a presentation I have to make for one of my lessons this week.” 

Aaron nodded. “Yeah, I have some work to do too.” 

Hamilton looked at his phone once more. “But you know what I realized? I never got your number.” 

Aaron sighed. He knew this conversation would happen sooner or later. 

“Fine. I feel like I’m going to regret this.” 

\-----

**_Burrrrr come bring your boring butt into the teacher’s lounge i know you’re just sitting in your room i’m actually eating for once come join us! Ang and eliza are here_**

Aaron sighed, throwing down his phone onto his neatly organized desk. He picked up his sandwich and tried to eat. 

His phone vibrated again against the neat stacks of paper. 

Picking up his pen, he started to write down his lesson plans for the week, while taking small bites of his sandwich. 

His phone vibrated again. And again. _Goddammit Hamilton._

**_Where are you?????_ **

**_Ang and eliza are wondering where you are_ **

**_You can’t ignore me forever_ **

He groaned. The argument volleyed back and forth in his head: go to the lunch room and be annoyed with Hamilton or get constant texts for the next half hour. 

After a few seconds Aaron sighed again. He begrudgingly packed his lunch up again and made his way to the teacher’s lounge. 

“AARON BURR SIR!” 

Aaron had barely stepped into the lounge when Hamilton’s voice rang out. He resisted rolling his eyes and gave a weak smile. 

Hamilton stood up and threw his arm around Aaron’s neck. 

_I should have stayed in my room. This is against the rules._

His face felt flush as Hamilton lead him to their table. Angelica and her sister waved to him as he sat. 

“Oh, my God, Alex, could you just chill for one second in your life?” Angelica said. 

“I lack the ability to chill, Ang, you know that.” 

“Too well,” Angelica replied exasperated. She smiled, though, as she picked up her water bottle. 

Aaron opened up his lunch box and started to eat, quietly listening to the group’s conversation. 

He felt like he nodded and smiled and laughed at the right points, but after a few minutes, Hamilton turned his eyes towards him, a quizzical look on his face. He placed his arms on the table and leaned over. Hamilton’s sleeves were pushed up, and Aaron couldn’t help staring at his forearms. 

“So, Burr. What’s new?”

“Um, nothing. Nothing,” Aaron said, looking everywhere but Hamilton’s arms again. 

He felt Angelica kick his leg lightly. He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced towards Angelica. She was fighting a smile as she poked at her salad. _Shit. She totally saw that._

He looked back to Hamilton, trying to play it cool, to find him looking back and forth between the two. “What’s going on?” 

Aaron was sad at the loss of Hamilton’s forearms as he sat up. 

“You should ask Aaron,” Angelica muttered. 

“Nothing, nothing.” Aaron knew how stubborn Hamilton could be, so he knew he had to think of something to get him off track. “So I checked with Jefferson and we don’t have any money in the budget next year to get those new textbooks we had talked about.” 

“You’re kidding. And you’re just telling me this now?” 

“I was going to tell you about it at our next speech practice.” 

“You should have texted me right away! Did you tell him we need those books? The ones we have are so outdated and the curriculum is horrible.” 

Hamilton continued to rant and rave. Aaron loved the way Hamilton’s eyes lit up with passion as he talked heatedly. 

_You’re in way too deep now, Burr._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting close to the end!! 
> 
> Tumblr: [emilyinthebluebox](http://emilyinthebluebox.tumblr.com/)


	9. What are you waiting for?

**_where are you burr?? you promised me you were coming the party can’t start without you!_ **

Aaron looked at his phone as he stepped to the door. Their annual Christmas party was held at Sam Seabury’s house, one of the 8th grade teachers. Aaron had never attended before, but Hamilton had been persistent. He had the texts to prove it. 

**_what are you going to even do that night anyways? it’s the start of christmas break!!!!!!!!!!!!! law and order can wait_ **

**_sam is such an ass burr i usually make fun of him all night you don’t want to miss it_ **

**_angelica asked if you were coming do you want to disappoint her??? she actually likes you! imagine that_ **

He had texted back: ** _Okay._**

So here he was. 

He walked into Sam’s house and greeted the fellow teachers. He was relieved when he saw Angelica over by the food table.

“I can’t believe it. Aaron Burr is actually here!” She gave him a hug. 

“Hey, Angelica,” he said awkwardly into her shoulder. 

“Alex told me you were coming, but I didn’t believe him.” 

He picked up a plate and started filling it with food. “Yeah, I’m making an appearance at least.” 

“Here, make sure you grab a drink. There’s some wine and beer in the other room.” She walked with him, chattering all the while about her plans for Christmas. 

He poured himself a hefty amount of wine. 

“Come and sit with us, Alex has been wondering where you were.” Angelica gave him a wink as she lead him towards the living room. “Are you gonna talk to him?” 

“Um, probably as he’s the one who told me to come.” 

“You know what I mean,” she replied, giving him a pointed look. 

Aaron stopped before he entered the room. 

Angelica placed a comforting hand on his arm. “I don’t know why you’re denying yourself this. You like him, and let me tell you he definitely likes you.” 

“He’s arrogant, we don’t get along most of the time, it just wouldn’t work.” 

“Yes, he is the worst. But he’s really not all bad. He can also be kind and passionate. You’ve seen how he is with the kids. He loves his job and really wants to be the best teacher.” 

Aaron had allowed himself to get to know Hamilton over the past month and knew she was right. He had seen a few instances. But he still managed to piss Aaron off quite frequently. 

He had been trying to dampen his feelings but it hadn’t been working. Here he was, all because Hamilton wanted him to be and he hadn’t even really wanted to go. He would have to make small talk with teachers he didn’t like and talk about his Christmas plans over and over: It was his nightmare. 

Angelica started laughing. “What are you waiting for? Just go for it. I know you’ve got it bad, Aaron. You were drooling over his forearms. His puny little forearms.” 

“Don’t remind me.” He sighed. “Well, let’s just get this over with.” 

He walked into the living room where a few groups of teachers were seated on multiple long couches. 

He spotted Hamilton immediately. He was standing near the fireplace gesturing widely, his glass of wine sloshing about. 

Aaron smiled politely and waved to the teachers as he took an empty spot on a couch. 

Hamilton stopped talking. Aaron looked up to find him staring incredulously at him. “As I live and breathe, Aaron Burr! You made it!” He ran over, a little bit of wine flying out the glass. 

Hamilton perched himself on the arm of the couch right next to Aaron. He leaned in and put his hand on Aaron’s shoulder. “Burrrrrrr. Isn’t Sam’s house so fancy? If you talk to him he’ll tell you all about it. He thinks he’s distantly related to some English king or some shit.” 

Aaron shrugged him off, the familiar heat rising in his face at Hamilton’s closeness. “You’re drunk already, Hamilton?” 

“Maybe…” he said with a wink. 

He was still way too close to him. “I shouldn’t be surprised.” He lightly pushed Hamilton away. 

The feelings he had been trying to repress came back in full force. He took a long drink from his wine glass. 

Things got worse from there. Hamilton continued to laugh and joke and lean against Aaron. He kept drinking more. Hamilton kept getting louder and louder. 

Aaron realized he may have overindulged a little too much when he stood up to leave and the room started spinning. He wobbled a little as he stood up. He tried to play it cool. 

“Oh, my god, Burr. You’re drunk!” Hamilton stage-whispered. They stumbled into each other as they walked out of the living room. 

He shook his head. “I’m not. You are!” He poked Hamilton in the chest. 

“Oh, I totally am, but shhhh.” Hamilton got a little too close to Aaron’s face and as he spoke, Aaron could feel himself getting warmer and warmer. 

“Well, this has been fun, but I need to go.” Aaron focused on walking straight.

“Noooo you can’t!” 

Aaron flapped his hands. “Goodbye Hamilton.” He had just gotten to the door when it burst open and Jefferson strode in. 

“What’d I miss?!” he said dramatically, staring at the two of them. “Hamilton,” Jefferson nodded towards Hamilton, who seemed to be swaying a bit. 

“Jefferson,” Hamilton said while crossing his arms and attempting to glare. 

Aaron was still buzzing from the wine, but seemed to have enough sense to know he needed to get Hamilton out of here. 

“Hey, Thomas, we were just leaving.” He grabbed onto Hamilton’s arm and started dragging him towards the door. 

“Oh, Jesus Christ above. Hamilton is wasted.” He gave an epic eyeroll.

“Merry Christmas!” Aaron yelled cheerfully, his face stretched into a fake smile. He stepped out the door, pulling a reluctant Hamilton. 

He yanked the door closed before Hamilton could get a word in. 

“Why would you do that, Burr? I needed to defend myself.” 

Aaron kept his grip strong on Hamilton’s arm and they marched awkwardly down the stairs. “I’m just trying to help you out, Hamilton.” 

Aaron continued to try pull Hamilton down the now icy sidewalks. A light snow had started falling while they had been at the party. The alcohol was keeping him warm, as he tried his best not to stumble and drag both of them down. 

“Always helping me, huh Burr. I don’t need it but it is appreciated,” Hamilton said, leaning even closer to Aaron’s face. They hadn’t been so close since _that day_. Hamilton’s eyes were a little bit more unfocused due to the drinks, but they were as dark as he remembered and _right there_. 

Aaron was in a daze for a moment, his eyes drifting to Hamilton’s lips.

He suddenly remembered where he was, the huge bright windows from the party not very far away. 

He looked around nonchalantly and finally lost his hold on Hamilton’s arm, deciding that he didn’t seem to be struggling. The pair continued to carefully walk down the icy sidewalk. “Says the guy who would have worked through the flu if it hadn’t been for me.” 

“I probably would have gone home eventually.” 

Aaron scoffed. “Sure. Sure. You just tell yourself that.” 

“Why do you keep helping me anyways. What are you waiting for, Burr?” Aaron looked to his side where Hamilton had stopped and was now glaring at him.

“What do you mean?” Aaron said casually.

“You know.” He tightened his arms against his chest, positively fuming. 

“We’ve talked about this already, Hamilton,” Aaron said firmly. 

“Ugh!” Hamilton started pacing, his hands gesturing wildly. “You keep on fucking saying that! I know okay? But what the hell, Burr? You keep giving me these glances that are telling a different story. I may have had a little too much to drink tonight, but I know what I saw. Is there something wrong with me? You just can’t bear to be with me?” 

Aaron sighed angrily. “Fine. You want to do this?” 

“I thought that was pretty obvious!” 

“Alright. You win. Cards all on the table. We’re just too different, you and me. You’re arrogant and obnoxious...”

Hamilton gaped. “ Oh yeah, and you’re so much better. Always ‘talk less, talk less.’ You never stand for anything. You just hide in the background and hope for the best.” 

“Just because I wait for it and have patience. You overwork yourself and can never shut up. You just say what you think all the time!” 

“I do! I won’t apologize for doing what’s right! You would rather just let other people do the work for you.” 

“Shut up. Shut up!” Aaron reached forward and grabbed Hamilton’s shoulders. He couldn’t stop himself from putting his lips to Hamilton’s. Hamilton reacted immediately, pulling Aaron to him. They both gripped at each other, their kisses frenzied and angry. 

Aaron pulled away first, his body hot despite the cold weather. 

His brain felt hazy. The anger he had felt minutes ago, seemed to vanish. He stared at the man in front of him: his face flushed, his hair disheveled. 

“God, I would have insulted you months ago if I knew this is how you would react,” Hamilton said, raking a hand through his hair. 

“Oh yeah, thanks,” Aaron muttered. 

“What are we supposed to do now?” Hamilton said in a small voice.

The truth had been let out. Words had been said. Yet he couldn’t deny that pull that kept drawing him time and time again back to Hamilton. 

The two stood staring at each other, chests heaving. 

“Well right now, I think I need another drink. You in?” 

“You know it, Burr.” Hamilton seemed to jump right back into his usual self and gave a thumbs up and started walking, his feet slipping on the ice almost immediately. 

Aaron reached out and caught him before he fell. “This is becoming way too familiar, Hamilton. I hope you took the train here,” he said, letting go of Hamilton quickly as he felt the almost fire between them again. “I’m not letting you drive anyways.” 

“Don’t you worry, Mr. Burr, sir. I’m responsible and took the train. So where are we going anyways?” 

Aaron didn’t really have any desire to go out and see other people and he did have a lot of alcohol at his place...He was going to regret this. He knew how this was going to end. If he was being honest with himself, he had imagined it many times before. “My place is actually not that far…”  
\-----

Aaron jingled his keys around searching for the right one. 

Hamilton was standing awkwardly to the side of his porch. They hadn’t said much on the journey back to Aaron’s, just many heated glances exchanged while they both pretended to look at their phones. 

Aaron dropped the keys, his hands sweating. 

Hamilton reached down and grabbed them. “Jesus Christ. Let me do it.” 

“I can open the door to my own house, Hamilton.” Aaron whipped the keys from his hand. 

“Just trying to help.” 

He finally got the door open. Aaron could feel the tension between them as they stepped in the doorway. He subconsciously reached for Hamilton. 

Hamilton ran in and plopped down on the couch. 

_Well, not exactly how I imagined this would go_. Aaron rubbed his hands over his face, frustrated over everything that had happened tonight and still not knowing what to do about it. 

“Burr! What a nice place you have. It’s so neat and tidy! I should have known.” Hamilton was bouncing up and down on his couch, the pillows Aaron had so delicately placed flying to the ground. 

“Oh, man, Burr! All the seasons of _West Wing_?” he yelled as he ran over to Aaron’s tv stand. “You should have told me. We could have been talking about it for months!” 

Aaron shrugged, not used to people examining his apartment and things so intensely. 

Hamilton was now running his hands over all the books in the bookshelf. “I feel like I know so much more about you now, Burr. --Oh my god.” Hamilton had pulled his copy of The Two Towers. “This copy is so worn out and falling apart. You totally love the books, don’t you? It explains so much.” 

Aaron needed that drink now. He walked past him and into the kitchen, grabbing two glasses and whiskey. 

He was losing his courage. He took a shot before facing Hamilton again. 

Hamilton had pulled out a few books, a small pile starting on the floor. 

“Hamilton, do you mind?” Aaron said as he made his way back into the room. 

Hamilton looked up from his crouched position on the floor. He had been flipping through another book, which he held up. “Can I borrow this?” 

“Go ahead, just make sure you return it.” Aaron gave Hamilton his glass.

Aaron placed his own on the coffee table and fixed the pillows that Hamilton had disturbed before sitting down. He took a big sip. He looked at Hamilton, who was still pulling out books and flipping through them. 

He was already pouring his next drink by the time that Hamilton finally got up and joined him. 

Aaron only had to yell a bit to get him to put all of it back. Hamilton ended up borrowing three of Aaron’s books. 

“Sorry, Burr. I just needed to look through all your books. I feel like that’s really the best way to get to know somebody.” 

Aaron stomach was twisted in knots as Hamilton leaned back on the couch, his knee very close by. 

Aaron downed the rest of his drink and poured himself another. 

“Whoa, there champ. Slow down.” Hamilton put his hand on Aaron’s arm. 

Aaron recoiled as if he was being burned and jumped to the other end of the couch. “I’m fine.” 

Hamilton raised his eyebrow. “If you say so.” He swallowed the rest of his drink and held out his glass. “At least share some.” 

Aaron shakily got the whiskey from the table and poured it into his glass. 

“Cheers?” Hamilton said. They clinked their drinks together. Aaron was glad to feel his buzz start to return. 

“So Burr. I gotta know. What’s your favorite _Lord of the Rings_ movie? Sorry, I hated the books.” 

Aaron looked at him incredulously for a moment. 

“I’m being serious here, Burr. This is a very important question,” Hamilton said. 

Aaron sighed but still answered. “I would have to say _Return of the King_?” 

“YOU WOULD BURR!” Hamilton yelled. He sipped his drink and shook his head. “I don’t know what I expected.” He scootched closer. 

“What’s your favorite, then?” 

“ _Fellowship of the Ring_. Duh. No contest.” 

Aaron and Hamilton continued to talk as they routinely refilled their drinks. Neither mentioned what they really needed to discuss. It was weighing heavy on Aaron’s mind, though, and his thoughts were growing more and more blurry. 

Aaron found himself laughing at everything Hamilton said, though he didn’t know why. The conversation was getting quite ridiculous. 

“Jefferson thinks he’s so stylish and God’s gift to humanity. But he’s nothing more than a stupid--charismatic--” Hamilton groped for a word. 

“--Butt,” Aaron finished. 

The two stared at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter and rolling around on the couch. 

“God, can we open a window? It’s getting so hot in here,” Hamilton said. He stood up and immediately fell back down again. “Oh, shit. Burr. BURR. I thought I was drunk earlier, but I’m reeeaaaaaally drunk now,” he said in a loud whisper. 

Aaron moved himself closer and whispered in Hamilton’s ear. “I know. Me too.” 

Hamilton laughed and shoved Aaron. “No kidding! Drunk Burr is the best! Not so much talk less anymore. Jesus, why is it so hot in here though? I’m not gonna try getting up again.” He started to roll up his sleeves. 

Aaron stared at Hamilton’s hands as he sloppily moved his sleeves up, exposing his forearms. This was too _fucking_ much. “Oh fuck!” he shouted. 

Hamilton whipped his head towards him. “Well I never! Such language! Whatever could have caused you to say that, Mr. Burr?” 

“You just had to push your sleeves up!” Aaron practically threw his glass on the coffee table. He had to have him _now_.

Hamilton looked at him confused for a moment, before Aaron propelled himself across the couch. He grabbed the neck of Hamilton’s shirt and slammed their lips together. Hamilton knocked his glass to the floor with a gasp. He bounced back quickly, wrapping his arms tightly around Aaron and responding enthusiastically. 

Aaron pushed Hamilton into the couch as he continued to press sloppy kisses into his mouth and laid on top of him. Aaron’s mind was hazy and his thoughts blissfully silent. He got lost in the hot, wet feeling of Hamilton’s mouth on his. Hamilton was making tiny sounds, which caused Aaron to groan. He could feel himself getting harder and harder. He pulled away, his breath ragged. Hamilton gave him a lazy smile before nuzzling his neck. He nibbled at his earlobe and Aaron closed his eyes. 

Hamilton’s voice was loud in his ear. “Should we move to somewhere more comfortable?” 

Aaron only nodded before he stood up, pulling Hamilton with him. They both stumbled into the coffee table and each other. Staggering and giggling, they made their way into the bedroom.  
Aaron couldn’t believe a) this was happening and b) how surprisingly okay he felt about it. He enthusiastically pulled Hamilton into his bed and they entangled themselves together. Hamilton tried to roll himself on top of Aaron, and then promptly landed with a thud on the floor.

“Oof. This bed is not wide enough, Burr.” 

“Shut up. It’s wide enough for the both of us.” Aaron reached down and clasped onto one of Hamilton’s arms, pulling him up. Hamilton stood up and tumbled into bed. The pair embraced once more. Aaron wove his fingers through Hamilton’s hair as he peppered his lips with frantic kisses. Hamilton was still making those noises; even when kissing he couldn’t seem to stop making sound of any kind. Aaron didn’t mind. It was nice to know just how much Hamilton wanted this too. Even if he hadn’t been getting...other signals.

“Oh man. I have to stop and appreciate your bedroom for a second.” Okay, never mind. Aaron sighed, pushing his head into his bed. 

“You’re fucking kidding me right Hamilton?” He was achingly hard now. “Too much clothes.Take them off.” All the issues he had had with Hamilton didn’t seem to matter now. He needed this. He wanted Hamilton. 

“That mouth on you, Aaron! It’s downright sinful.” He finally shut up and kissed Aaron once more. Aaron pulled his sweater off over his head. 

“Well HELLO, Mr. Burr, sir!” 

Aaron said nothing as he put his mouth to Hamilton’s. He set to work unbuttoning Hamilton’s shirt, his fingers clumsy. 

Once he finally managed to get the shirt off, he put his hands on Hamilton’s arms and pushed him into the bed. He ghosted his hands down Hamilton’s body, making quick work of Hamilton’s belt, and pulled his pants down. He grabbed onto Hamilton’s now fully erect cock, the tip glistening. He worked his hand slowly up and down, Hamilton gasping and groaning with each pull. Hamilton’s eyes were squeezed tight, pleasure evident on his face. Aaron smiled seductively at the sight, again loving the sounds Hamilton was making. 

“Fuckkkkkkkk. Faster!” Aaron did as he was told, and roughly pulled at Hamilton’s erection. “Ow, shit,” Hamilton said. 

Aaron let go. “Sorry. Sorry!” 

“I didn’t want you to stop!” Hamilton looked at him with wild eyes before settling back on the pillow again, his long hair long since fallen out of its tie. 

Aaron grasped Hamilton once more, moving his hand quickly. Hamilton started to breathe heavier. Aaron gasped and felt his hips start to buck towards Hamilton.

“Shit. I’m close. Keep it going! Yes, Burr yes!” As Hamilton finished his body shuddered, and he came all over Aaron’s hand. 

Hamilton wasted no time. He grasped onto Aaron’s biceps and flipped him over. 

“It’s your turn,” he said coyly. 

He started kissing Aaron’s neck and making his way down, the beard burning Aaron’s skin. As he was right above Aaron’s belt, he reached a hand out and rubbed Aaron’s dick through his jeans. 

Aaron’s eyes widened. “UGhhhhh.” 

Hamilton smirked as he pulled his pants down. “See, I knew you wanted this, Burr.” 

Aaron groaned again, his hands fisting the sheets as Hamilton stroked. Then Hamilton finally decided to put his tongue to good use and took Aaron into his mouth. 

“FUCK! OH FUCK!” 

Hamilton pulled off, his lips wet. “You like that, huh, Burr?” 

Aaron moaned and writhed on the bed. 

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Hamilton took him into his mouth once more, running his tongue along the length of his shaft. Aaron thrust his hips roughly as Hamilton worked his mouth up and down. Hamilton made a choking noise and pulled off once more. “That’s how Burr likes it? Okay. That’s fine.” He smiled and sucked on his cock again. 

They continued to get faster and faster. Aaron couldn’t stop himself from calling out, “Oh shit! I’m--” His body was thrusting harder and harder, his hands tight around his sheets. There was a wet sound as Hamilton pulled his mouth off of Aaron and Aaron groaned as he roughly came, spilling out onto the sheets. 

Aaron lay panting on the bed. Hamilton wiped his mouth and ran his hands over Aaron’s body. “Don’t you wuss out on me, Burr. We are far from finished here.”  
\-----

Aaron was awoken by the sound of frantic unintelligible muttering. He thought he made out a few swears and the line, “How could I do this?” repeated a few times. He opened his eyes and was bombarded by the bright light. He quickly closed them again, feeling a headache forming behind his eyes. 

The muttering continued, this time accompanied by sharp breaths. He opened his eyes again, taking a few moments to adjust them. He saw Hamilton in the corner, attempting to put his jeans on. His face looked panicked, his hands slightly shaking as he pulled on his pants. 

“Hamilton, calm down.” 

Hamilton stopped, his pants still halfway up his legs. 

“Oh, Burr. You’re awake.” He sounded like he was trying to be calm. He resumed pulling his pants up. “I’m...I’m just leaving. We don’t need to talk about this. I’ll see you later, Burr.” He finally got his pants on and started walking towards his bedroom door. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” 

Hamilton stopped with his hand on the doorknob. 

Aaron forced himself to sit up. Even though he felt slightly hungover, he couldn’t help but smile at how ridiculous, yet attractive Hamilton looked. His dress shirt was half tucked in, his hair thrown into a messy bun. His forehead was scrunched up as he looked back to Aaron. “What? What do you mean? I’m going back home.”

“Alexander.” Aaron loved the way the blush rose up Hamilton’s neck at the sound of his name. “Come back to bed.” 

The blush continued to rise to his face. “Are you sure?” he said in a small voice. He wouldn’t meet Aaron’s eyes. 

Aaron attempted to get out of bed. The sheets were sticking to his legs. The activities of the previous night ran through his head. He smiled as he reached to grab one of Hamilton’s hands, which was slightly sweaty. 

“I’m sure,” he said as he pulled him in for a light kiss. 

That seemed to give Hamilton some courage again. He pulled Aaron into bed. Hamilton flipped over so he was facing Aaron and grabbed his hand. 

“I still don’t know how you’re feeling, Burr. I mean, I know you like me. But are you sure you’re okay with this? You’re not still drunk from last night? This is not going to be a mistake? You don’t need to do this for my benefit. We can go back to being sort of friends, it will be fine.” 

“Well right now could you please stop squeezing my hand?” 

“Oh, sorry, Burr,” Hamilton said. He loosened his grip slightly. 

“Also please stop talking,” Aaron said. He scooted himself closer to Hamilton. 

Hamilton opened his mouth to speak again. Aaron let go of Hamilton’s hands and put his finger to his lips. “Nope. No talking. I need to sleep more. I have a headache and it’s way too early. You know some of us actually require sleep to function.” 

“But--”

“I know what you’re going to say. Yes, I’m fine with this. And sorry, no, we’re not talking about it right now,” Aaron said. 

“Fine, do we really need to sleep though?” Hamilton said, his eyebrow raised. “Because I have some other ideas and they may fix your headache too.” 

“Later, _Alexander_.” Using his first name got the desired effect: Hamilton’s eyes darkened. 

Hamilton pulled Aaron towards him, softly kissing him. 

Aaron closed his eyes, wrapping his arms around Hamilton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was going to be where I was going to end it originally..but I'm adding one more chapter!


	10. Epilogue: ONE MORE THING

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My idea for this fic started with my frustration over teaching junior high kids..so pretty much all of the things that Ham says to his students in this part are things I have said to kids before.
> 
> We have finally arrived at the end..
> 
> Have some Hamilton POV!

It was the day both teachers and students alike despised: the return from Christmas break. 

Alexander had arrived to school early, unable to sleep. He sat in his car, fingers restlessly tapping the steering wheel, his mind grappling with what he was about to walk into. 

_Where do we stand now?_

_Is he going to pretend nothing happened?_

His thoughts were still moving a million miles a minute, but he finally resolved to leave his car and go into school. Getting ready for the day would help keep his mind off his current problem. 

He got so wrapped up in responding to multiple parent emails from over break that he didn’t notice that someone had stepped into his room. That was until the visitor reached over and snapped his laptop closed. 

Alexander pulled his hands back quickly. “Jesus Christ!” He looked up at the bemused face of Angelica Schuyler. He glared back at her. “Why would you do that?? I was in the middle of something,” he snarled. 

She rolled her eyes. “Someone’s grumpy this morning. I’ve been waiting for you to notice I was here. I thought that would get your attention.” 

He opened his laptop again and got back to his email. “Sorry, but I’m busy.” 

She grabbed his laptop from the desk and held it to her chest. 

“What the--” 

“Alexander. Please. You’ve been ignoring me all break.” 

He stood up and tightly wrapped his arms around his body, his frustration barely being held in. “I have work to do, Angelica. Give. it. back,” he bit out. 

“You can’t just talk to me for 5 minutes? I’ve texted you all during break and you never responded. Did something happen with you and Aaron?” She gazed at him, her eyes kind. 

He didn’t respond and held his arms tighter to his chest, though his resolve was wavering. “Come on. Talk to me about it. I can help. You don’t want to start the year off snapping at the kids do you?” Angelica said. 

All the fight drained out of him. He flopped into his chair, hands running through his already messy hair. Angelica pulled a chair over and sat down next to him. She put a comforting hand on his back. 

After a few moments he cleared his throat. “Yes. Something happened. And it happened a few times over break…” 

Angelica gasped. “I KNEW IT,” she shouted, punching the air. 

Even her excitement couldn’t save Alexander from his worry, though. His fingers restlessly tapped out a beat on the arms of his chair.

“What’s the problem then, Alex?” 

He continued to tap, his mind whirling with worry. Then he let his air out slowly, trying to calm himself. “I have this feeling he’s going to just pretend nothing happened now that we’re back at school. We still never really talked about it? Every time I tried he would just tell me to talk less and say he was fine with it. It’s very frustrating.” 

Angelica laughed. “You two are so ridiculous. You’re worrying about nothing. Have you even seen him yet today? I’m guessing not. You need to talk to him before getting yourself so worked up.” 

Alexander snatched his laptop back from Angelica and turned himself away from her. “Fine. Laugh at me all you want. I know I’m right though. You’ll see.” He started furiously typing again. 

She snorted. “Whatever you say. I was just trying to help you.” 

Alexander’s eyes were still on his computer. “Thanks, but it doesn’t help.” 

She gently patted him on the back. “You really should talk to him though, Alex.” 

He nodded as she left the room. Part of him knew she was right, but he still couldn’t seem to see reason. He was still doubting everything that had happened between him and Burr. 

He tried to focus on the email, ignoring the panic in his mind. 

\-----

Alexander could feel the frustration building up inside him as the day went on. Idiotic things were part of the job of a junior high teacher, but he couldn’t seem to handle it today. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” he yelled across the room. Avery was in the back attempting to do her math homework. The students fell into a hushed silence. He normally didn’t yell. All eyes were fixed on him, carefully watching his next move. 

Alexander stormed over to her and put his hand out. She reluctantly gave him her book. “But I need that!” she whined. 

“This is not math. You can get it back at the end of class.” He calmly tried to return to his lesson. 

He was proud of himself for only snapping at a few more students. 

“No, Jeremy. You may not just get up and talk with your friend. We’re in the middle of class!” 

“Excuse me? Are you going to argue about this with me? How about you argue about this with Mr. Washington. I can send you there right now!” 

“Tommy, that doesn’t look like your seat. No. You can’t ask him something now. No. You need to move right now!” 

“Girls, I can hear your conversation. It is definitely not related to the class!” 

He really needed to talk to Burr. 

_I’m not ignoring him….I’ve just been too busy_ , he told himself as he spent yet another lunch working. 

He was inputting grades into his computer when he heard a knock at the door. He jumped from his chair, his messy pile of papers sliding to the floor. 

“Shit,” he muttered to himself, hoping it was not a student at the door. “Come in!” 

He hastily tidied up his papers as Burr entered his room. His heart started racing. 

Burr walked towards his desk, a cool neutral look on his face. This was usually his standard look, but he was gnawing on his lower lip, his eyes frantically darting around. Alexander prided himself on being able to read Burr’s faces pretty well at this point: he was worried. _Well, that makes two of us._

“Oh, hey Burr.” 

Alexander saw him take a deep breath before he finally spoke. “Hey,” Burr said, his voice soft. 

Alexander studied Burr’s face. He still looked worried. Alex couldn’t handle the silence that had settled around then, so he started to ramble. “Sorry. I haven’t talked with you today. I’ve just been busy, you know first day after break and all. So much to catch up on today and the kids have been driving me nuts. I didn’t do nearly enough work over break. Too much relaxing and well...you know..” he trailed off, a blush rising up his neck. He had never been one to get embarrassed by sex, but things were different with Burr. It was hard to know where he stood with him when they had never really talked. 

There was a long, pained pause. 

Alex looked up. Burr was pointedly looking away, still chewing on his lower lip. 

“Not that it was a bad thing! It was a good way to spend my break. But there’s always work to be done, you know? Never enough time in the day. I just--” 

He could feel his panic bubbling up the more time he talked and the less Burr was talking. And he still wasn’t meeting his eyes. That certainly wasn’t helping matters. He took a deep cleansing breath. 

“I’m sorry, Burr. I’m kinda going crazy over here. If you’re gonna end things can you at least just tell me?” 

The line seemed to jar Burr back to life. “What? Why would I end things?” 

Now Alex really didn’t know what the hell was going on here. “Why wouldn’t you? You never seem to want to talk about anything so I assumed you had your fun. We’re back at school now. Things are just going to back to how they were before break.” Alex’s eyes fell onto his desk. He didn’t want to see the truth in Burr’s face. 

A loud booming laugh rang out around his classroom. 

“You--are so--ridiculous,” Burr said in between laughs. 

Alexander scowled deeply trying not to notice how nice Burr looked when he smiled like this. A real true Burr smile. He had only seen it a few times. “Oh, I’m ridiculous am I? We’ll just add that to the list. With obnoxious and arrogant.” 

Burr was now wiping tears away from his eyes. “We both are.” 

Alex was as confused as ever. Now Burr was walking over to his desk? Burr looked back at the door before reaching out to grab Alex’s hand. 

Burr rubbed tiny comforting circles into his hand. Alex was stunned into silence. “I came in here ready for you to tell me you were chucking me out. And then you accuse me of the same thing! I guess I gotta break my cardinal rule and maybe talk more.” 

Burr smiled and stepped towards Alexander. He pressed a kiss into their intertwined hands. “I know I don’t say what I really feel most of the time. But when I do you know it’s the truth. As much as it pains me to admit, I want to be with you, Alexander Hamilton.” 

Alex stood up, a smile slowly breaking out across his face. “Really?” 

He was blessed with another genuine Burr smile. “Really.” 

They both leaned forward simultaneously, bringing their lips together in a light kiss. 

“Aaron Burr. Kissing me at school! The nerve!” Burr rolled his eyes before kissing him once more. 

Alex squeezed Burr’s hands tighter when they broke away. “I’m sorry I freaked out on you. I got this idea in my head and I thought it was true. I know we’re very different, but I like you, Burr. I always have,” Alex said. 

Alex moved to kiss Burr again when the bell rang out. 

“Shit. We’re still at school. We’ll finish this up later,” Alex said with a wink. 

 

_Four months later_

The last speech meet of the school year went off without a hitch. Their team as a whole finally placed and got in 3rd. 

Alex and Burr were ecstatic. They walked onto the bus all smiles. They congratulated and chatted with the students. 

As Alex took his seat he was bombarded with the memories of their first speech meet. Burr had acted weird all that day and at first Alex hadn’t known what to think. Burr was a closed off dude, but this was different. Alex had gotten the feeling that Burr liked him. He’d figured it was best to act on it...well that had definitely backfired on him. 

Things were better now, though. Burr was sitting next to him, giving him a real smile. Alex grinned back at him and gave his leg a squeeze. 

“Stop that.” _Well Burr was still Burr._

“Stop what? You’ll have to be more specific.” He placed his hand on his leg again. 

Burr had wanted to be secretive about their relationship at school. Only Angelica knew. Alex didn’t care either way, but since that’s what Burr wanted, he played along. For the most part. 

“I’m not doing this right now,” Burr muttered. 

Alex rolled his eyes. “Come on Burr! You’re no fun. You know they’re not listening.” 

Burr gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand before placing it back on Alex’s lap. 

“Fine. I’m gonna get you back for this though,” Alex said. 

“Don’t I know it.” 

When they got back Alexander lead the group off the bus and towards the school again. 

“What do you think the deal is with Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Burr?” said a voice behind him. 

Alex started to turn around at the sound of his name, but stopped himself at the last second. He kept his eyes straight ahead, ears straining to hear the now whispered conversation. 

“I think they’re totally dating!” another voice chimed in. “Ham keeps looking at him for way too long and Burr looks annoyed, but then he smiles to himself. It’s so cute!” 

“Right?? They have to be!” 

Alex couldn’t help the grin the broke out across his face. He had to tell Burr. 

Some parents were already at the school waiting for them. Alex waved as about half of the group left. “Bye, guys. Great job today!” 

Alex smirked and walked over to Burr. He was looking particularly Burr-ish: a smile on his face too strained to be real. As the group dwindled down, Alex leaned over. “The kids totally know,” he whispered into Burr’s ear. 

Alex pulled back so he could see Burr’s expression. Alex watched as the horror spread: his eyes slowly widening, his mouth gaping. He quickly schooled his face back into his trademarked nonchalance.

“I overheard them talking,” Alexander said. 

“Oh. Um…” Burr started gnawing on his lip. 

Alex reached out a hand, but thought better of it. There were still students there with them. They didn’t seem to be paying attention, but he didn’t need to risk it. “It’s fine. It was just a couple of kids. And like I told you before who cares?” He leaned over again. “They thought we were cute, Burr,” he whispered excitedly. 

Burr just rolled his eyes. 

Alex punched his arm. “Lighten up, Burr! We’re adorable!” 

_The kids were right!_ Burr did look annoyed but then he turned away and still smiled. Alex fought the urge to reach over and kiss him. There were still two students left to be picked up though. He hoped they would be gone soon. 

“No wonder the kids know, you’re so obvious, Burr!” 

The quick horrified look was back. “I am???” 

“Yes and I love it.” 

“Please stop talking to me.” 

Alex just laughed, but noticed the small secret smile was back on Burr’s face. 

“Seriously, I do not want the students to know.” 

_Burr looks so cute when he’s worried._

Alex mimed zipping his lips. “For once these lips are sealed. And we only have like a month left of school. They’ll forget it all next year anyways. We’ll have to work on not being so obvious over the summer.” He looked out towards the parking lot and saw a car pulling in. _Finally!_

One of the girls waiting turned towards them. “That’s our ride! Bye Mr. Burr! Bye Mr. Hamilton!” 

They both waved. 

“Good job today, Sadie!” Burr called out. 

The two girls got into the car. Alex was watching the car disappear out of sight when Burr wrapped his arms around Alex’s neck. He kissed him deeply. 

Alex felt his eyes bug out momentarily before pulling Burr closer to him and kissing him back. 

“Well that was certainly unexpected.” But not unwelcome. Alex still felt a little dazed. 

“I guess I’m just chasing after what I want. After all, I did learn that from you.” 

Alex’s heart swelled. 

“Took you long enough. I thought you were supposed to be a quick learner, Mr. Prodigy of Princeton.” 

“Oh I can take some things slow.” 

“Haha, that’s true. Mr. Burr?”

Burr raised an eyebrow. “Sir?”

“Take me home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who has followed this story!! I have appreciated all the comments and kudos. This is the longest thing I've ever written and still can't believe I actually finished it! 
> 
> And as always forever in debt to my friend, L for helping me and reading through this. 
> 
> Because I couldn't help myself [I made a aesthetic thing for this fic](http://emilyinthebluebox.tumblr.com/post/142821528108/emilyinthebluebox-fanfiction-aesthetic-burr)
> 
> Lastly...I actually did get some more ideas as I was writing this chapter, so this may end up turning into a series..


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